UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA agricultural experiment Station 
 
 College of agriculture benj. ide wheeler, president 
 
 BERKELEY CALIFORNIA Thomas Forsyth Hunt, Dean and Director 
 
 CIRCULAR No. 96 
 
 PORK PRODUCTION. 
 
 By J. I. Thompson. 
 
 California is producing only one hog for every three people in the 
 State. She is consuming more than three times that many. Approxi- 
 mately forty carloads of pork products, chiefly hams, bacon and lard,, 
 and twenty-five cars of live hogs are shipped here from other states 
 every week to supply the demand. Not only do we need more hogs 
 to supply the market demand, but at the rate dairying is increasing 
 more hogs are needed to consume the by-products from these dairies. 
 
 Ours is a meat consuming people and always will be. The hog is in 
 a list all by himself as an economical producer of edible material. 
 From one hundred pounds of dry matter a sheep will produce about. 
 2.6 pounds of edible meat and a steer 2.8 pounds, while a hog from 
 this same amount of feed will produce 15.6 pounds of meat suitable 
 for human food. 
 
 The hog differs from other classes of stock in his physical make up 
 and his ability to handle bulky food. The capacity of his stomach is 
 only about 65 per cent of that of the sheep, or for one hundred pounds 
 of live weight only about 33 per cent as much, while compared with 
 a cow his stomach capacity is only 8 per cent. These figures readily 
 indicate that the feed for the hog must necessarily be much more con- 
 centrated than that of the sheep and cow. 
 
 The markets here desire a hog of about two hundred and twenty- 
 five pounds live weight and will pay a relatively higher price for hogs 
 properly fed than for those improperly produced, provided they are of 
 the type and finish that will dress out a large per cent of desirable 
 cuts. 
 
 The younger the pig the more economical his gains, so it pays to 
 get him up to market weight in the shortest possible time. The re- 
 ports of various experiment stations show that pigs under fifty pounds 
 gain weekly 16 per cent of their body weight, pigs under one hundred 
 pounds 7.4 per cent, under two hundred pounds 5 per cent and under 
 three hundred pounds only 3.8 per cent. Also that a fifty pound pig 
 uses only 18 per cent of his feed for maintenance, leaving 82 per cent 
 for gains. A one hundred pound pig has left for gains 75 per cent 
 and a two hundred pound pig only 64 per cent of the feed that he 
 consumes. 
 
 The smaller pig eats more for his size than the larger one and re- 
 quires less for maintenance. Therefore, the only conclusion is that it 
 pays to push them along rapidly. 
 
 (1) 
 
— 2 — 
 
 If a pig were made to weigh two hundred and twenty-five pounds 
 at eight months of age, he would have eonsumed for maintenance 
 alone approximately two hundred seventy-five pounds of food of the 
 equivalent of wheat middlings. If he did not reach the same weight 
 until fourteen months of age, he would have consumed for mainte- 
 nance alone approximately forty hundred and eighty pounds of food 
 the equivalent of wheat middlings. 
 
 The amount digested over and above that used for maintenance 
 represents the amount available for gains. Therefore, the pig that 
 eats the most, provided he makes the proper use of it, is the most 
 economical. 
 
 There are three breeds of lard hogs and two of bacon hogs gen- 
 erally distributed throughout this State and all of them seem to fit 
 quite well into the environment. The lard breeds are Berkshire, Duroc- 
 Jersey and Poland-China; the bacon breeds, Tamworths and Yorkshires. 
 Breeders ordinarily succeed best with the breed they like best. Any 
 breed will undoubtedly give more uniform results than a mixture of 
 two or more breeds. 
 
 In the selection of sows for the breeding herd particular attention 
 should be paid to confirmation, constitution and breediness or fem- 
 ininity. Choose those showing superior depth, width and uniformity, 
 with length in proportion. Insist on a deep, broad chest with no per- 
 ceptible drop back of the shoulders, with enough bone to carry the 
 weight readily and sufficient quality to give an attractive appearance. 
 Old sows produce larger, stronger pigs, and more of them than young 
 sows, so they should not be sold so long as they breed regularly and 
 are not too fat, heavy or deaf to make good mothers. 
 
 Six strong, vigorous pigs to the litter are more desirable than eight 
 or nine inferior ones. Whether the number is large or small they 
 should be kept growing rapidly until they are ready for market. 
 
 There is no more desirable feed for hogs of any age than alfalfa 
 pasture, and the fact that it is available here for about nine months of 
 the year is a most important item. As a single feed, it is not sufficient 
 for growing or fattening hogs, but should be supplemented from a 
 list of concentrates, among which are barley, corn, wheat, shorts, mid- 
 dlings, bran, oil meal, soy-bean meal, tankage, skim milk, beets, and 
 pumpkins.