sold. Still
others would be compelled to sell, at reduced prices, their partially
fattened animals. There is a constant fluctuation in the price of
animals and animal products, due to variation in yield and hence in
price of food supplies. It requires continual vigilance on the part of
the stockman to secure food supplies at such cost as will enable him
to secure a profitable return from his animals.

CHAPTER XVI

RETURNS FROM ANIMALS

In any well-considered plan of farm operations it is essential to have
some basis for estimating the amount of food required to carry live
stock through the year in order to know, on the one hand, what portion
of the crops raised are available for sale and, on the other hand,
what food supplies must be purchased. A requisite of any successful
farm enterprise is a proper consideration of these market conditions.
While domestic animals consume a variety of foods, and each class of
animals has special food requirements, the basis of calculation of the
needed supplies is fortunately not complicated. Twenty-five pounds of
dry matter are required per day for each thousand pounds of live
weight of horses, cattle and sheep, and for swine about 40 pounds for
each thousand pounds of live weight. It may be more convenient to
calculate the food requirement of swine on the basis of increase in
live weight, allowing five pounds of dry matter for each pound of
increase. Some further details as to food requirements will be found
in the paragraphs which follow.

COST OF PRODUCING HOGS

Pigs possess two characteristics which make them unique among domestic
animals. They consume concentrated and easily digested foods only, and
they produce nothing but meat, fat and bristles. Cattle furnish milk
and hides; sheep, wool, hides and sometimes milk; fowls furnish eggs
and feathers. On account of their limited range of usefulness and
because of the high value of much of the food consumed, it would not
be possible to rear swine economically were it not for their
prolificacy and the fact that they are employed largely as scavengers.
Many cattle are fattened without direct profit. The indirect profit
comes from the sale of the pigs which have followed the cattle. It is
customary to mature one hog with little or no additional food while
fattening two steers. In many well-known ways, pigs consume products
which would otherwise be