The Rural Voice, 1982-10, Page 25FARM ADVICE
Putting corn
through hogs
Because of the low prices forecast for
corn, there seems to be a very favoured
alternative to market corn through hogs
this fall. One price forecaster very simply
predicted - get a hold of some of those
empty pig barns from the bankers and
market your cheap corn through hogs this
fall.
Remember you get nothing for nothing.
Yes, the 26:1 corn:hog ratio favours
putting corn through hogs, but let's now
define some of the criteria around this
ratio.
1 Let's not make the mistake of the
beef feedlots and let's pencil the purchase
of these feeder pigs. What price can you
afford to pay before you lose on
marketing corn through hogs? Know your
own costs, not someone elses.
2 Take a look why there is an empty
barn. Not every empty barn is capable of
producing hogs, especially the empty
ones. There's a reason why the barn is
empty and take a close look at the
ventilation and pig flow.
3 Study your source of piglets. Hemo-
philius pneumonia and swine dysentry
have not Left the pig industry. Raising
hogs is not as easy as forecasting prices,
especially with some of the deadly
diseases.
4 Take a look when you're going to buy
these feeder pigs. Corn harvest is a busy
season, so you're not likely to look after
them properly and late fall has some real
temperature fluctuations. Do some plan-
ning and budgeting before you jump into
hogs.
5 Lastly and most important, the
corn:hog ratio is only important if you
can produce lean pork efficiently. The last
Pork News and Views showed a return of
$38.75 per finishing hog. Calculated
another way it could also be said that it
gives you $7.66 per bushel of corn for
your total farm efforts. But let's change
the costs probably closer to the Ontario
level of production rather than goals - for
example, $80. for the total weaner costs,
feed conversions of 4.2, 5% mortality and
a newer barn. Now with these figures you
are getting $2.37 per bushel of corn. The
important thing is to be as realistic as
possible when plugging in your costs. You
may be losing less money by selling your
corn at $2.50 per bushel than doing a poor
job putting corn through hogs.
Perth Farm News
SMYTH ROTARY BEAN CUTTER
• 6 row front mount
• newly designed front mount bracket
• 22" discs
• adjustable row spacing
• row dividers optional
• 4 row rear mount
• hitch & PTO for windrower
• row dividers for rear tires
• 22" disc
george Stnyt6 Weldinqr
And machie Skop Ltd
"WE BUILD THE BEST AND REPAIR THE REST"
R.R. 2. AUBURN. ONT. TEL. 529-7212
NOM 1E0
THE RURAL VOICE / OCTOBER 1982 PG. 25