OCR Text |
Show PROFITABLE WEIGHT OF PIGS Should Not Be Fed After Reaching Age of Nine Months Money In Young Animals. Experiments made for the purpose of determining the economic weight of a pig show conclusively that he never should be fed beyond eight or nine months old, and the largest profit is found, as a rule, in a weight not ex. ceeding 200 pounds. What is known as the food of support, says a writer in the Farm and Home, plays a very important part in the profit or loss of large weights. Suppose, as many farmers say, that a pig is not to be killed until he reaches 300 pounds. He must take from his food an increasing amount each day to support or maintain the weight already gained, or else he drops back. The experiments indicate indi-cate that 2 per cent, of the live weight in food must be taken each day to support that live weight. If the' animal weighs 300 pounds this amounts to six pounds of food daily, or over 40 pounds per week, and as the only profit is the food that is applied to make new weight, it results re-sults that over 40 pounds of food are consumed per week from which no profit whatever is reaped. It fob lows that the most money can be made from young hogs killed at a medium weight. |