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Winter oats and Crimson clover pastures as supplements to fattening rations for feeder pigs

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Title:
Winter oats and Crimson clover pastures as supplements to fattening rations for feeder pigs
Series Title:
Bulletin - University of Florida Agricultural Experiment Station ; 458
Creator:
Baker, F. S. Jr.
Place of Publication:
Gainesville, Fla.
Publisher:
University of Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
North Florida ( flego )
City of Gainesville ( flego )
Protein supplements ( jstor )
Pastures ( jstor )
Oats ( jstor )

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Source Institution:
University of Florida
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All applicable rights reserved by the source institution and holding location.

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Bulletin 458


February, 1949


UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS
HAROLD MOWRY, Director
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA
(A Contribution of the North Florida Experiment Station)


Winter Oats and Crimson Clover Pastures
As Supplements to Fattening Rations
For Feeder Pigs

By F. S. BAKER, JR.







Nua


rul '-- ^ A














Fig. 1.-Hogs fattened on corn, minerals and Crimson clover pasture,
without protein supplement (Lot IV).

Single copies free to Florida residents upon request to
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA
a-*












GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA







TABLE 1.--AVERAGE DAILY FEED CONSUMPTION PER PIG.


Average Daily Feed Consumption
Number Days Per Pig (Pounds)
Year of on Protein Total
Pigs Trial Shelled Supple- Mineral Concen-
SCorn | ment Mixture trates

OATS PASTURE


Lot I. Corn, Protein Supplement, Minerals

1946 12 70 4.91
1947 8 56 6.31
1948 5 56 5.61

Average.. 8.33 62.72* 5.44*
Lot II. Corn, Minerals

1945 10 76 4.57
1947 8 56 5.47
1948 5 56 4.94

Average 7.67 64.70* 4.91*


0.34 0.06
0.39 0.07
0.42 0.06

0.37* 0.06*



0.05
0.08
...... 0.13

0.07*


CRIMSON CLOVER PASTURE

Lot III. Corn, Protein Supplement, Minerals

1943 11 70 5.26 0.36
i947 8 56 5.94 0.37
1948 5 56 5.44 0.41

Average.. 8.00 62.42* 5.50* 0.37*
Lot IV. Corn, Minerals


0.05
Trace
0.05

0.03*


1946 12 70 4.87 ...... 0.07 4.94
1947 8 56 6.41 ...... 0.12 6.53
1948 5 56 5.74 ...... 0.11 5.85

Average.. 8.33 62.72*_ 5.46* ..... 0.09* 5.55

DRY LOT

Lot V. Corn, Protein Supplement, Minerals

1946 12 70 4.04 3.50 0.02 i 7.56
1947 8 56 5.70 1.77 Trace 7.47
1948 5 56 6.73 1.55 0.01 | 8.29

Average-. 8.33 62.72* 4.99* 2.66* 0.01* 7.66*
Weighted averages. For days on trial-total pig days divided by total number of
pigs. For average feed consumption-total feed consumed divided by total number of
pig days.


5.31
6.77
6.09

5.87*



4.62
5.55
5.07

4.98*






5.67
6.31
5.90

5.90*








Winter Oats and Crimson Clover Pastures As Supplements
To Fattening Rations for Feeder Pigs

By F. S. BAKER, JR.
Assistant Animal Husbandman
North Florida Experiment Station, Quincy, Florida

The value of green grazing crops as supplements to fattening
rations for feeder pigs is generally recognized. The use of good
pasture not only effects a saving of concentrates required for
fattening but also insures a supply of nutritional elements likely
to be deficient in dry lot rations. As fattening feeds are rela-
tively scarce in Florida, it is particularly desirable to make maxi-
mum use of grazing crops in finishing feeder pigs for market. In
consequence, a three-year experiment to determine the value of
winter pasture crops as supplements to fattening rations for pigs
was conducted at the North Florida Experiment Station.
Winter oats and Crimson clover, both of which are adapted
to much of North Florida, were used as pasture crops. Oats
have been quite extensively used as a grazing crop for swine
in recent years, furnishing grazing from late fall until early
spring. With its increasing acreage, Crimson clover is expected
to gain in importance as a pasture crop on the heavier upland
soils in the area. Although it does not provide as early grazing
as oats, Crimson clover furnishes an abundance of high quality
forage during the latter part of the winter and early spring.

Experimental Procedure
Fall-farrowed feeder pigs produced in the Station Duroc-
Jersey herd were used for these trials. Barrows and gilts were
divided into five uniform lots according to age, weight, sex,
grade and litter and fed as follows:
Lot I. Corn and minerals, free choice; limited allowance pro-
tein supplement; oats pasture.
Lot II. Corn and minerals, free choice; no protein supplement;
oats pasture.
Lot III. Corn and minerals, free choice; limited allowance pro-
tein supplement; Crimson clover pasture.
Lot IV. Corn and minerals, free choice; no protein supplement;
Crimson clover pasture.
Lot V. Corn, protein supplement, and minerals, free choice;
dry lot.






Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


Protein supplement was hand-fed to Lots I and III in quan-
tities that would be readily consumed shortly after feeding.
The rate of feeding protein supplement was the same for the
two lots. A mixture of equal parts of 60 percent tankage and
41 percent peanut oil meal was fed in 1946. Digester tankage
(60 percent grade) was used in 1947 and 1948.
Ear corn in the shuck was self-fed to all lots. Periodic shell-
ing tests were made, and the quantity of shelled corn consumed
was calculated on the basis of these tests.
The following mineral mixture was available to all lots:
50 pounds steamed bonemeal
50 pounds calcium carbonate
25 pounds salt
10 pounds red oxide of iron
1 pound copper sulfate
2 ounces cobalt chloride

Grazing crops were stocked at a rate that would insure an
abundance of green grazing throughout the trials. In order to
make the lots of comparable size, both the oats and Crimson
clover were stocked at the same rate, although the Crimson
clover could have carried several more pigs per acre than the
oats. The feeding trials were begun when the clover had made
sufficient growth to provide adequate grazing. The average
starting date of the three trials was January 24.

Oats Pasture
Average daily feed consumption per pig for each of the three
trials, together with the three-year averages, is given in Table 1.
It is seen that there was considerable difference in the quantities
of corn consumed by Lot I, which was fed protein supplement,
and Lot II, receiving no protein supplement. In each of the
three trials, the pigs that did not have access to a protein con-
centrate consumed less corn, the difference in consumption be-
tween the two lots averaging approximately one-half pound per
head daily for the three years.
Pig gains and feed consumed per 100 pounds gain are pre-
sented in Table 2. As shown by these results, pigs grazing oats
pasture required less concentrates for 100 pounds gain than
those in the dry lot. On the basis of a three-year comparison
with the dry lot, oats pasture saved 50.6 pounds of feed for
each 100 pounds gain when protein supplement was fed, and
17.4 pounds when the pigs received no protein supplement.






Pasture Supplements for Fattening Feeder Pigs

TABLE 2.-RATE OF GAIN AND FEED CONSUMED PER 100 POUNDS GAIN.


Aver- Aver- Aver- Aver- Fe
age 1 age age age Pc
Year Initial Final Gain I Daily
Weight] Weight per Gain
per per Pig per Corn
Pig Pig Pig
OATS PASTURE

Lot I. Corn, Protein Supplement, Minerals

1946 76.1 182.7 106.6 1.52 322.8
1947 116.0 209.1 93.1 1.67 379.5
1948 115.0 206.0 91.0 1.63 345.3

*Average 96.6 195.8 99.2 1.58 343.9
Lot II. Corn, Minerals


ed Consumed per 100
unds Gain (Pounds)
Protein Min- Total
Sup- eral Con-
ple- Mix- cen-
ment ture trates


22.3
23.7
25.8

23.4


1945 78.7 172.0 93.3 1.23 372.0
1947 115.6 179.6 64.0 1.12 478.5
1948 116.0 193.7 77.7 1.39 356.2

*Avcage 1 99.7 179.4 79.7 1.23 398.5

CRIMSON CLOVER PASTURE

Lot III. Corn, Protein Supplement, Minerals
I I


1946 74.6 195.0 120.4
1947 116.0 209.0 93.0
1948 115.7 215.0 99.3

*Average 96.9 203.8 106.9
Lot IV. Corn, Minerals

1946 75.1 183.3 108.2
1947 115.3 210.4 95.1
1948 115.3 211.3 96.0

*Average 96.0 197.5 101.6


306.2
357.8
306.6

320.9


348.9
407.1
375.1

371.1



375.8
485.5
365.2

404.3





330.0
380.5
332.1

344.6



319.3
383.5
341.3

342.8


1.55 314.8
1.70 377.1
1.71 334.8

1.62 337.2


DRY LOT

Lot. V. Corn, Protein Supplement, Minerals

1946 73.9 204.3 130.4 1.86 216.8 187.7
1947 116.0 201.5 85.5 1.53 373.5 116.1
1948 115.7 235.7 120.0 2.14 313.8 72.5

*Average 95.7 209.7 114.0 1.82 274.8 146.2


405.5
489.9
387.0

421.7


Weighted Averages. For average gains-total gains made by lot during three years
divided by total number pigs in lot for three trials. For average daily gain-total three-
year gain divided by total pig days. For feed consumed per 100 pounds gain-total feed
consumed during three years divided by total gain for three years/100.






Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


Pigs fed a protein supplement on oats pasture gained more
rapidly in each of the three trials than those receiving only corn
and minerals on oats pasture, the average difference being 0.35
pound per head daily. The no-supplement lot required more
feed per unit of gain in two of the three trials and an average
of 33.2 pounds more for the three years. One pound of protein
supplement fed to Lot I saved almost 2.4 pounds of corn, when
the feed requirement of Lots I and II are compared. It is prob-
able that this saving would have been greater if uniformly large
feeder pigs had not been used in the 1948 trial. The lot receiv-
ing no protein supplement on oats pasture in 1948 gained un-
usually well and required only 365.2 pounds of feed for 100
pounds gain.
Crimson Clover Pasture
As shown by Table 1, there was a relatively small difference
in the quantities of corn consumed by Lot III, which was fed
protein supplement, and Lot IV, which received no protein sup-
plement. The no-supplement pigs ate somewhat larger quantities
of mineral mixture, however.
In comparison with the dry lot (Table 2), Crimson clover pas-
ture saved a substantial quantity of feed per unit of gain in
each of the three trials. The average saving for the three years
was 77.1 pounds of feed per 100 pounds gain for Lot III, fed
protein supplement, and 78.9 pounds for Lot IV, which received
no protein supplement on Crimson clover pasture.
Pigs fed a protein supplement made slightly higher gains
than the no-supplement pigs on Crimson clover pasture. How-
ever, very little difference existed between Lots III and IV in
feed consumed per 100 pounds gain. The pigs in Lot IV, which
received no protein supplement, made adequate, economical gains
and were in desirable market condition at completion of the
trials (Fig. 1).

Comparison of Oats and Crimson Clover
Pigs grazing Crimson clover made larger gains with less feed
required per unit of gain than did those on oats pasture (Table
2). The differences are particularly noticeable when Lots II
and IV, which received no protein supplement, are compared.
For the three trials, Lot II, grazing oats, consumed 61.5 pounds
more feed per 100 pounds gain than Lot IV, which was similarly
fed on Crimson clover pasture. In addition, pigs in Lot IV gained






Pasture Supplements for Fattening Feeder Pigs


an average of 0.39 pound more per head daily. There was a
smaller difference between the performance of the pigs on the
two crops when a protein supplement was fed. Pigs in Lot III,
which were supplied a protein supplement on Crimson clover
pasture, gained an average of only 0.13 pound more per head
daily and consumed 26.5 pounds less feed per 100 pounds gain
than similarly fed pigs in Lot I, grazing oats. Very little differ-
ence existed in the average daily feed consumption of the latter
two lots (Table 1); whereas the corn consumption of Lot II was
considerably lower than that of Lot IV.
Quantities of mineral mixture consumed by the lots receiving
no protein supplement were higher than for those fed supple-
ment, although there was not a substantial difference between
the consumption of the two lots grazing oats (Table 1). Pigs in
the dry lot, which were self-fed protein supplement, ate very
little of the mineral mixture.
As the dry lot was self-fed protein supplement, the quantity
consumed per 100 pounds gain was considerably higher than for
Lots I and III, which received limited allowances of supplement
on the two grazing crops (Table 2). In 1946, when a mixture
of equal parts of tankage and peanut meal was fed, pigs in the
dry lot consumed an unusually large quantity of the mixture,
which was decidedly more palatable than tankage alone.

Summary and Conclusions
Both winter oats and Crimson clover saved concentrates when
used as grazing crops for fattening pigs.
Feeding a protein supplement to pigs fattening on corn, min-
erals, and oats grazing increased the rate of gain and decreased
the amount of feed consumed per 100 pounds gain.
Pigs fed no protein supplement on oats pasture did not con-
sume as much corn as those fed either tankage or a mixture
of tankage and peanut oil meal in limited quantities.
There was little difference in the rate and economy of gains
made by pigs fed protein supplement and those receiving no
protein supplement on Crimson clover pasture.
Feeder pigs grazing Crimson clover made larger gains with
less feed per unit of gain than similarly fed pigs on oats pasture.
The importance of supplying a mineral mixture to pigs re-
ceiving no protein supplement of animal origin is suggested by
the mineral consumption of the no-supplement lots.