Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1888 [PAGE 234]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

FEEDING PIGS.

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13.8 pounds of skim-milk, when fed in connection with corn meal in the ratio of one pound of corn meal to 1.7 pounds of skim-milk to produce one pound of increase. In other words, for every 13.8 pounds of skim-milk consumed, one pound of increase was produced over what would have been with corn meal alone. Thus, 3.3 pounds of skim-milk were equivalent to one pound of corn meal. During the time the experiment was being conducted corn was worth twenty-eight cents# per bushel at Champaign. Including the cost of grinding, corn meal was worth 57 cents per hundred weight. Skim-milk was therefore worth seventeen cents per hundred weight as a food to be fed with corn meal to fattening hogs under the conditions enumerated. The reversal of the trial at the end of three weeks and its continuance for a like period plainly indicated that the gain was not due to individual differences, although no exact statement can be made for the last period on account of their previous dissimilar conditions of diet. Professor Henry found at the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station (Bui. No. 1, 1883), that when skim-milk was fed alone it required 19 pounds to produce one pound of increase, and that 4 pounds of corn meal, when soaked in water and allowed to become slightly sour, produced the same results. Thus 4.75 pounds of skim-milk were equal to one pound of corn meal, which .would make the skim-milk worth, rating corn meal at 57 cents per hundred pounds, twelve cents per hundred pounds. I n a series of five experiments with varying proportions of corn meal and skim-milk, Professor Henry found the following results;

1 Pounds of milk for one pound of increase Pounds of milk = one pound of corn meal Value of milk per cwt. when corn meal is worth 57 cents per cwt ; Katio of corn meal to skim-milk 9.2 1.84 $ .31 1: 5.2 2 11.7 2.34 $ .24 1:10.6 3 5.5 1.10 $ .52 1: 1.6 4 14.0 2.80 $ .20 1: 1.5 21.0 4.20 .14 : 10.0

His average value for skim-milk was higher than that obtained by us. His maximum valuation, rating corn meal as stated above,, was fifty-two cents; minimum, twelve cents; average about twentyeight cents per hundred weight. This was in part due to the fact that a larger quantity of corn meal (5.0 instead of 4.15 pounds) was required to produce one pound of increase. I t required on an average 12.70 pounds of skim-milk to produce one pound of increase against 13.6 pounds in our experiment. In the trials by Professor Henry the best result was obtained with corn meal and skim-milk in the ratio of one to 1.6 pounds, nearly identical with that used in our experiment. In the latter case the corn meal was fed dry; in the former soaked with water and allowed to become slightly sour. I n a trial made at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station with three pigs, it was found that with corn meal and skim-