CUT ALFALFA EARLY FOR HOGS
It is especially important that alfalfa intended to be fed to hogs should be cut early. An experiment at the Kansas station showed that a ton of early cut and well-cured alfalfa, fed with grain, produced 868 pounds of pork while a ton late cut and poorly cured, fed with grain, produced only 333 pounds. For fattening hogs it is well to feed about one ton of well-cured alfalfa hay with each 250 bushels of grain.
Farmer’s Bulletin No. 215 of the United States Department of Agriculture declares that alfalfa is an ideal pasture plant for hogs. “There is no danger from bloat and with a limited number of hogs there is practically no injury to the alfalfa field. Vigorous alfalfa will support 15 to 25 head of pigs per acre. It is best to limit the number of pigs to that which will be insufficient to keep down an alfalfa field. Cuttings of hay may then be made at intervals and the growth thus rejuvenated. On the average pigs weighing 30 to 60 pounds in the spring will make a gain of about 100 pounds each during the season. Although pigs may be grown and fattened upon alfalfa alone, it is best to combine the alfalfa with some kind of a grain ration. Alfalfa by itself is too rich in protein to give a balanced ration. Where pigs are pastured upon alfalfa alone they may be prepared for the market by feeding for a few weeks upon corn. It is still better, however, to feed a third to a half of a ration of corn or other grain during the time of pasturing.”
The great mistake made by too many who attempt to pasture swine on alfalfa is in overstocking. There is a tendency to keep within a small pasture more stock than it can comfortably support, with the result that the stand is gnawed, trampled and rooted out, while the animals fail to prosper as they would under more rational treatment.
One of the most extensive and successful swine raisers in Kansas tells the author this: “Twenty-five years of pasturing hogs of all ages on alfalfa has proven conclusively to me that with a fourth to a half grain ration, while they are on such pasture, will produce in them a greater growth per day than when in dry lots on full feeds of corn. Hogs will maintain a reasonable growth, but not fatten much, on alfalfa pasture alone; I believe it profitable to feed them some grain while running on green alfalfa. If it is desired to full-feed hogs, they will make a rapid fattening growth by increasing the grain ration while on the pasture, and with the full grain ration the meat will be nearly as firm as those of the dry lot, where grain alone has been fed. I find no distinction on the market between alfalfa-fed swine and those purely grain-fed, and they sell price and price alike. The general health of the alfalfa-fed hogs is equal to that of those maintained on any other feed, and they are prolific.”
The Kansas station realized $11.90 per acre from rape pasture and $24.10 per acre from alfalfa pasture in ninety-eight days. These results were obtained from the following experiments, which were begun July 25 and concluded October 31.
Thirty shoats, averaging fifty-two pounds in weight, were divided as nearly equally as possible into three lots of ten each. Lot I was fed on a grain mixture of shorts one-half, corn meal one-fourth, and Kafir-corn meal one-fourth, in a dry lot. The other two lots were fed the same grain ration, but one received rape pasture and the other alfalfa pasture in addition. Each lot was given what grain the hogs would eat up clean, and each had access to water and ashes. The weights of grain consumed and gains made are as follows:
| Feed | Grain consumed in pounds | Total gain, in pounds | Grain consumed per 100 lbs. gain, in pounds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I. | No pasture | 3,801 | 1,023 | 371 |
| II. | Rape pasture | 3,244 | 1,076 | 301 |
| III. | Alfalfa pasture | 3,244 | 1,078 | 300 |
The gains of the three lots are very nearly equal. The dry lot consumed 557 pounds (or seventy pounds for every 100 pounds of gain) more grain than the pasture lots. The lot on rape required one acre of pasture, while the alfalfa lot used a trifle less than one-half acre.
The lot without pasture required 3.71 pounds of grain to produce one pound of gain. Assigning the same value to the grain fed the hogs on rape pasture, we have 877 pounds of pork credited to the grain and 199 pounds credited to the rape. At six cents per pound, the price at which hogs were selling at the close of the experiment, this would be a credit of $11.90 per acre for the rape. In a similar manner, the alfalfa is credited with 201 pounds of pork, equal to $12.05, and as there was only a half-acre of alfalfa, this makes a rate of $24.10 per acre.
The cost of preparing the seed bed and seeding the rape was $1.80 per acre. It was seeded in the feed lots, on soil that would otherwise have remained idle or would have grown up to weeds.
The shoats on pasture enjoyed their diet and seemed satisfied. Those in dry lot seemed to be hankering after something green, and their appetites seemed unsatisfied without some kind of roughness. They would even nibble at straw, in a vain attempt to satisfy their craving.
“The experiment,” says Prof. D. H. Otis, “emphasizes the superior value of alfalfa pasture. Where alfalfa is not available, or where variety is wanted, or it is desired to utilize otherwise waste land, Dwarf Essex rape, seeded at the rate of six to eight pounds per acre, any time from early spring to late summer, will furnish an excellent diet that is greatly relished by the hogs.”
J. E. Woodford, of Coffey county, Kansas, April 1, 1905, placed ten choice pure bred Poland-China brood sows from twelve to eighteen months old that were due to farrow in the latter days of June, on a five-acre field of alfalfa. They were given no other feed than the alfalfa pasturage until they had farrowed and their pigs were a week old. After that the sows had in addition to the alfalfa some bran slop until about August 20, when new corn was fit for feeding. He says: “The sows from the time they were turned on the alfalfa until the last week in June made a remarkable growth, besides gaining somewhat in flesh. They did well with their pigs, reared an average of seven to each sow, and as sucklers they were a sight to see. The pigs were the most attractive bunch ever raised in Coffey county, as admitted by our breeding competitors. We weighed a gilt from this lot when six months and five days old, and her weight of two hundred and twenty-five pounds was not above the average of the whole lot. In our lifelong experience in rearing swine we have found nothing of the grass kind for them that in value approaches alfalfa.”
A plat of thrifty, well-established alfalfa suitably fenced and used for pasturing swine of whatever age can scarcely fall short of being among the most profitable parts of any farm upon which swine husbandry is given attention.
CHAPTER XIV.
Alfalfa for Horses and Mules
J. W. Robison, a Kansas breeder of Percherons, who ranks among the foremost anywhere, raises his colts to three years at an average weight of 1700 pounds and his four-year-olds at 1900 pounds, ready for the sale yard, on alfalfa, except such limited quantities of grain as will make it more nearly a properly balanced food, and incidentally expedite growth. His opinion, fortified by sixty years of experience, is that alfalfa as pasturage and hay constitutes by far the most excellent and economical frame- and muscle-forming food available to the live stock industry. His colts have alfalfa as their first green food, and, if foaled in winter, are taught in a few days to nibble the cut hay. He also says colts reared mainly on alfalfa have equal spirit and vigor and better dispositions than those given much grain. His brood mares are made to rely on alfalfa as their main ration, and for three months before foaling it is practically, unless in midwinter, their only feed. As a result they are always in ideal condition, their colts are delivered easily, the mares give an abundance of nourishing milk, free from feverish tendencies, and the colts are robustly rugged from their beginning. The cost of rearing colts and horses by this method, he says, is less, quality and rapidity of their growth considered, than by any other of which he has knowledge.
The well-known J. E. Wing, of Ohio, says: “There is no one thing so good for the work horse as alfalfa. He needs less grain, and has more life and spirit than when fed upon any other hay, yet even working teams can, on account of its richness, be fed too much. This puts an undue strain upon their excretory organs to eliminate the unnecessary food substances from the tissues. The overfeeding of alfalfa hay to horses has in some localities caused the use of it to become unpopular, and to raise an outcry against it. The writer has fed no other hay to his horses—working teams, driving horses, mares and foals—for many years, and has yet to observe the first instance of evil result, save that the driving horses when not used regularly become soft and easily sweated.