Pasture-fed pigs may be given one-fourth of a pound of tankage, or one and one-half to two pounds of skim-milk or buttermilk per day; one-half pound of middlings may be added to the above ration. Adding bran or finely ground oats to the middlings will prevent constipation in case the middlings are too fine and floury.
What corn is readily cleaned up may be fed at the age of three months or a little earlier if skim-milk is being fed. The pigs should be fed four times a day at first and then three times. As the pigs grow older the corn and middlings may be increased, but at no time should corn alone be fed.
Markets. The successful stock man is the one who is familiar with market requirements and tries to meet them. Every pig club member should know something of the market classes and grades of hogs. These differ somewhat according to local conditions, but in a general way the classification used on the Chicago market may be taken as a standard.
Heavy hogs are no longer at a premium except when the price of lard is high. They contain a large amount of fat. The various grades of hogs in the several classes indicate the degree to which they have attained to the standard of perfection, prime being the highest grade, and common and inferior the lowest grades.
Butcher hogs are commonly used for fresh meat trade. They are principally barrows.
The term packing refers to the use to which this class of hogs is commonly put. They are inferior to butcher hogs and are cut up, cured, and packed in boxes and barrels. Mixed packing hogs are those marketed without grading. Speculators often buy them up and grade them.
The meat of pigs is unsuitable for curing and supplies part of the demand for cheap, fresh meat.
Bacon hogs quoted on the Chicago market are not the bacon hogs which furnish the Wiltshire sides. They are lard hogs that are not highly finished, have a high per cent of lean meat, and supply the demand for lean pork.
Stags are males castrated too late in life to grade as barrows. Boars are used for sausage and supply cheap fresh meat.