Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1916 — PIG-CLUB RESULTS [ARTICLE]

PIG-CLUB RESULTS

Arouses Interest in Livestock anti Provides Profitable and Instructive Work for Members. The pig-club work has been carried on by the bureau of animal industry of this department during the past year in co-operation with the state agricultural colleges of Alabama. Arkansas, California, Georgia, Ind’ana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas. Pig clubs were organized among the farm children and proved a means of arousing further interest in live stock, and at the same time furnished profitable and instructive work to the members. The economic objects of the pig clubs are: To teach the members how to raise better swine cheaply; to give the members a means of earn ing profits; and to afford the members a practical insight Into the business side of farming. Indirectly ■the improvement of the swine of the country and the general introduction of better and cheaper swine-i raising methods are purposed. Each pig-club member is required to keep a record of his pig-feeding work and report this at the end of the .state contest. Many unusually

successful records have been made. These are not typical of the work, but rather represent its posibilitie-. A summary and the averages of the work of many members give a better indication of the value of the pigclub work. In the 13 states named, 11,632 members were enrolled las& year in the pig clubs. Not all were active members, but mosr of these raised pigs. While a great many reported more or less completely on their work, 1,608 members from 11 states, with a membership o' 11,032, reported completely on weights, values, gains in weight, costs of gains ant profits. No figures are available from California and Oregon, excep. as to the number of members. The figures following are compil d from the complete reports. Seventeen hundred and eighty three pigs were reported, or an average of 1.1 pigs per member. The majority of members took weaning pigs to feed in the spring and reported their results in the fall. The average weight per pig at the beginning of the feed’ng period was 39.2 pounds. At the end of the feeding period, which averaged days, the pigs weighed 194% pounds. This was an average daily gain in weight of 0.93 pound, at a cos?of $0,04 4 per pound. This low cost of gain can be attributed, it is believed, to the better feeding methods practiced and the wide u .3 of forage crops by the members. The original value of the pigs averaged $5.24. The average final valu • was $21.43, a gain in value of $16.19. This gain in value co c t $6.91, giving an average net profit per pig of $9.37 and an average net profit per member of $10.29. *l'Lese figures are a strong indication that improved swine, raised ■’ the right way, are profitable even when pork values are as low as they were in 1915. The vast majority o members had carefully selected high grade and pure-bred hogs, and to this improved blood, as well as the better feeding methods, can be attributed the large difference in favor of the average final value of pig-club hogs in the fall—s2l43, as compared with the estimated average val e of all hogs on farms in the Unite! S ates on January 1, 1916, sß*4o. The pig-club members have shown their ability as a body to raise Pigsuccessfully. They have raised gon’ pigs, cheap pigs, and profitable pigs. Many are keeping their gilt pigs for breeding purposes. Some already have found it profitable tn breed as well as to feed pigs. Fif‘” six members reporting on their sows and litters reported an average profit of $47.32. With the member ship for ihis year doubled and most of the old members again on the rolls, the pig work'should prove of even greater economic value in th* 1 future. —Weekly Letter United States Department of Agriculture.