The Dayton Daily News - Farm Section

Country Life In The Miami Valley

Dayton, Ohio

Thursday, May 23, 1912

Economy is the First Law in Hog Feeding

Methods of John W. Kleinhennz, a Mercer County Farmer, Who Has Succeeded Where Others Failed — An Advocate of Ground and Cooked Food He Feeds His Hogs Without Loss. Pasture and Grain Constitute a Combination Which Has Produced Good Results—First Installment.

John W. Kleinhennz, who lives one mile west of Maria Stein station, in Mercer county, Ohio, was not building for fame when he developed a system of feeding hogs for market. He was actuated by the extremely practical desire to find a way to finish feeding hogs more economically than he had been able to in the past. Notwithstanding, he gained fame, for his success has attracted wide notice in many states. Had he failed in his endeavor his experiment would never have been heard of. But he succeeded, and succeeded even beyond his own expectations. The story of his experiments forms a valuable page in the history of hog production of this decade. His example doubtless will be followed by many feeders, and the substantial results obtained the country over will affect total supply.

Mr. Kleinhennz is practical from head to foot. There is not a trace of the idealist about him, and he is in the hog business for the money there is in it. With this explanation well in mind the reader may dismiss any suspicion that the establishment described herein is the work of one who desired to demonstrate individual notions, at any cost, and magnified the results to suit his own desires.

Five years ago Mr. Kleinhennz was a farmer and hog raiser. He lives on the farm his father owned until his death. Up to the time when he started his systematic feeding experiments his methods in hog raising were similar to those employed on thousands of farms today. Every farmer is familiar with such methods. Corn hauled to the feeding lot and scattered around without regard to weather or other conditions. The result is a fat hog, but at what cost?

Mr. Kleinhennz undertook to ascertain what per cent of the corn was actually utilized by the animal, and the result of his calculations astonished him. He became convinced of the necessity of deriving better returns from the grain fed and concluded himself in working out a plan through which this result could be obtained. He sought a way whereby all the corn could be utilized by the hog and none of it wasted. At first glance this seemed practically impossible, since the hog is a wasteful animal, always improvident in times of plenty and so nice in his habits that he dislikes to accept food after he has once refused it. Many theories occurred to the mind of Mr. Kleinhennz, and a few of them were worked out. The familiar plans advocated by some feeders were looked into. Feeds was rationed proportionately among the animals and other expedients were adopted which promised good results, but all of them failed to satisfy the requirements of Mr. Kleinhennz, and he set about solving the problem in his own way.

Early in his experiments he became convinced that the hog thrived best on cooked food. This was contrary to the teachings of many of other so-called experts, but he found he secured better results when the food he gave his hogs was cooked. He never regarded the hog as an epicurean animal whose tastes required pampering, but from the viewpoint of securing full use of all the food elements Mr. Kleinhennz believes all grains should be first ground and then cooked before being offered hogs for food. That was the first discovery. The next was to invent a way to serve the cooked food to the herd so that the food could be consumed without any waste. Economy is the first law in hog feeding, according to Mr. Kleinhennz, and unless the animals can be so fed that they will get all the food without wasting even a small per cent any system will fail.

To bring about this result Kleinhennz invented a hose and feeding floor. This hose is oblong, with cemented floor. The building is surrounded by a cement yard. At the side and end of this cemented yard a cement trough was built when the yard was laid. This trough extends along one side and across one end of the yard, about 25 feet from the hog house.

The trough is in the shape of a letter L. The cook house is at the top of the letter and at that point the galvanized iron tank receives the ground meal from bins overhead. When it is desired to prepare a tank of food, the proper amount of meal is dropped into the tank from the bins overhead. Then boiling water is turned into the tank from the pipe which connects with the heater. This heater is an immense iron box set on a furnace in which natural gas is used for fuel. The food is never placed in a cooker proper, but is mixed with boiling water and allowed to stand until cool enough for the hogs to eat. The meal is sufficiently cooked by turning boiling water into it. This tank of galvanized iron is mounted on a four-wheeled truck which runs on iron rails like a railroad car. When the tank is filled with the steaming food it is pushed along the track which is laid close to the feeding pans. At the bottom of the tank, on the left-hand side, there is a spout, closed on the inside with a slide, to which is attached a long-handled lever operated from the rear of the car. This spout extends beyond the side of the tank sufficiently to reach beyond the top of the cement trough which extends along the side and across the end of the feeding yard mentioned above. The trough is about 12 inches across the top, 8 inches deep, with a partition at intervals of 10 feet all along the entire length. When it is desired to fill the trough with the cooked food the tank is run out of the cook house filled with the soft mixture.

When the escape spout engages with the first division of the feed trough, the car is stopped, the lever pushed down, which opens the escape spout at the bottom, and the feed runs out into the trough. When that division of the trough is filled, or has received as much food as is desired to place in it, the lever is raised and the flow of food shut off by closing the valve in the bottom of the tank which supplies the escape spout. The car is then pushed farther along the line to the second division, when the process is repeated. An ingenious arrangement in the way of a turntable has been built at the corner or turn of the trough. When the car reaches the end of the long trough and it is desired to change the direction and run it along the end trough, it is run upon a detached section of the track which is fitted to a strong pivot set in cement below the middle of the turntable. When in this position the car is turned, when it is ready to proceed on its way along or across the short end of the feed lot. The sections of trough may be then filled as the ones were in the first course of the car from the feed cooking house. The arrangement is so simple, so satisfactory and so entirely adapted to the purpose that it would seem that no other device could be so fully equipped for the purpose.

It should be borne in mind that the first food the tank is run out of the cook house filled with the soft mixture. When the escape spout engages with the first division of the feed trough, the car is stopped, the lever pushed down, which opens the escape spout at the bottom, and the feed runs out into the trough. When that division of the trough is filled, or has received as much food as is desired to place in it, the lever is raised and the flow of food shut off by closing the valve in the bottom of the tank which supplies the escape spout.

It was while this calamity was present that Mr. Kleinhennz reached a decision which may be of the greatest value to other feeders who have adopted the plan of buying hogs for the purpose of finishing for market. At the beginning of the outbreak there were a great many pigs, some yet running with their dams. There was nothing that could be done with such animals but permit them to stay on the place and take their chance with the disease. On the other hand he had a great many hogs almost ready for market. These could be disposed of immediately, and this was done without any loss of time, the hogs that had not been affected with the disease being run to market in the quickest possible time. In thinking over the situation he realized that the plan for him to pursue was to have the main body of his herd made up of animals which could be ready for an emergency market at practically any time. In pursuing this plan Mr. Kleinhennz relies almost entirely on securing a supply of hogs by purchase, preferring such hogs as weigh from 120 to 150 pounds. He gathers such hogs from every available source, paying whatever price can be agreed upon. When he takes them to his farm he immediately places them on feed and quickly brings them to a condition when they may be run to market almost any day. His plan is sensible from more than one point of view.

The primary object of Mr. Kleinhennz in constructing this feeding arrangement was to conserve the food and prevent absolute waste. That he has succeeded is manifest when the device is inspected as well as from the unvarying experience of the inventor. It would seem that this excellent and original device was patentable, but when Mr. Kleinhennz applied for a patent he was informed by the authorities that his specifications were contained in other appliances adapted to other uses, and he could not hope to profit in that way through his ingenuity. However, Mr. Kleinhennz is not worrying over that fact, since he has realized returns far beyond his most sanguine expectations. In addition, he is just the kind of man to rejoice in the fact that other feeders may profit through his discovery and experiment, and all men are free to utilize to the fullest extent any part or all of his invention.

While Mr. Kleinhennz is a producer of hogs, breeding at times so as to acquire several hundred hogs, he does not attempt to raise on his farm all the hogs he prepares for market. At times he purchases a great many hogs. Last year he raised and had bought from neighbors near and far almost a thousand head of hogs. Let farmers who have experienced an outbreak of cholera among their herds endeavor to understand what it means to a man who has nearly a thousand hogs almost ready for the market, to have the disease suddenly appear. Such was the experience of this feeder last year, and before the outbreak was checked he had lost about 400 head.

His method avoids the long interval which must elapse between the time the pig is farrowed and the day when it can by the best of feeding be made ready for market. Again, he secures practical immunity from serious loss by cholera by being able to place his hogs on market the day an outbreak appears, or when it may appear in his neighborhood.

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The Dayton Daily News - Farm Section

Country Life In The Miami Valley

Dayton, Ohio

Thursday, May 30, 1912

Economy is the First Law in Hog Feeding

To Prevent Cholera One Way To Save — Kleinhenz Believes It Pays To Use Serum Treatment — Machinery in His Feeding Plant — Neighborhood Is Religious Center — Church School and Social Life Closely Related.

(Continued from Last Week.)

Incidentally it may be remarked that Mr. Kleinhenz is a strong believer in the serum treatment of hogs to prevent cholera. His experience with the serum furnished and administered by the state warrants him in saying that through its use, applied to hogs that have not been exposed to cholera, he can keep his herds practically immune. The way he expects to utilize this is as follows: Should cholera break out in his herd he expects to dispose of every hog that is well that can be legally and legitimately sent to market. This will leave him without feeding stock, but he will then thoroughly clean up his premises, disinfect and take every step calculated to kill remaining germs, then go out after another supply of feeding stock. He will then accept none but hogs of the size mentioned, weighing from 120 to 150 pounds. These he will bring to his farm, cause them everyone to be treated with the serum and proceed to feed for the quickest market. He experienced the best of results from the use of serum as administered by the experts from the state department of agriculture, and entertains no doubt whatever that the above plan will work to his full satisfaction and prevent any future serious loss from cholera.

Other feeders who are constantly menaced by the cholera, which every year causes a loss of millions of dollars in the state of Ohio, should give heed to the plan briefly outlined above, whereby one of the most successful feeders in the entire country hopes to avoid a recurrence of the tremendous loss he suffered in past years.

Of course, it goes without saying that all men cannot follow this plan, since it is necessary for some to produce the pigs. But circumstances existing on various farms make it necessary for some farmers to dispose of their pigs before they are fit for the general market. There are such farmers in every community, and to them the presence of men like Mr. Kleinhenz is the means of saving them from serious loss.

A brief description of the methods employed by Mr. Kleinhenz in handling the vast amount of feed required for his big herds every season may not be amiss. In the first place he constantly has in mind the economical handling of every ounce of food his hogs consume. He has fitted up a dump and elevator to handle the corn as it is hauled to his farm by neighboring farmers. A derrick with a windlass will lift the front end of a wagon bed filled with corn; the grain then runs into a bin so placed that it engages with an elevator which runs into the second story of the feeding house. The power for operating this elevator is supplied by the farmer’s own team, which has been detached from the wagon to allow the load to be lifted. The horses are hitched to a lever which turns a tumbling shaft which in turn operates the elevator. In a few minutes the load of corn, after being weighed on the scales in the barnyard, is elevated to the great bins in the second story of the feeding house. When the corn is elevated to the second story the carrier belt is run horizontally with intervals for dumping to the floor at a distance of eight feet. This distributes the corn over as large an area as may be required.

When it is desired to grind corn for feed the ears are shoveled into a sheller operated by a 20-horsepower gas engine. When shelled the grain is again elevated by the system of machinery into a bin above the mill, which is located on the second floor of the feeding house. This mill is one of the latest improved and reduces the grain to corn meal, not merely cracking it.

As the meal comes from the mill it is again elevated by endless belt carriers to a point where the carrier runs over a horizontal conveyor to the second story of the cook house, where it is dropped into a bin, the bottom of which is directly over the galvanized tank in which the prepared food is placed.

As has already been described, when it is desired to cook a tank of food, the meal is dropped from the bin overhead into the tank. Then boiling water is turned from the furnace tank into the meal, and the whole mass thoroughly stirred until well mixed. Then it stands until cool, by which time it is sufficiently cooked.

Just now corn meal and linseed meal comprise the food for the hogs. The reason for this is that oats and all mill feed is so high in price that it is not economical to feed it. With corn at about one cent a pound and oats at nearly two cents a pound, corn with linseed meal is regarded as by far the most economical. The use of linseed meal is not alone for its corrective effects on the digestive system of the hogs, but it is regarded as an excellent food by Mr. Kleinhenz. It is fed in the proportion of one part linseed meal to fifteen parts corn meal, and this constitutes a good combination.

When hogs are on full feed they are, of course, allowed to eat all they will take at the troughs. But up to the time when they are placed on full feed they are allowed to consume only such amount as desired. Of course the great number of hogs usually fed by Mr. Kleinhenz cannot get to the trough all at one time. He has an arrangement where a sufficient number to fill the trough comfortably can be admitted to the feeding floor. When they are through a second lot is admitted, and so on until all are fed. The hogs are fed twice a day, and during seasons when grass is available the whole herd is turned on pasture. But all are fed this prepared food every day in the year, without regard to whether or not they are on pasture.

There are conditions and advantages at the farm owned by Mr. Kleinhenz which render it unusually adaptable to the form of feeding described. For instance, there is an abundant supply of natural gas for lighting and fuel purposes.

This gas is supplied by an individual who owns wells and supplies resident farmers in the field in the greatest abundance. At the home of Mr. Kleinhenz gas is supplied at the rate of $1.50 per month for each stove, and the same is charged for the gas consumed in the furnace which cooks the feed.

In addition to this very economical and convenient arrangement the two gas engines which supply power for all the purposes on the place are run without gas at a trifling cost and no trouble.

Water is pumped with one of the engines, which also does many other stunts for the farm, such as running the washing machine, the churn, cream separator, etc.

The big engine which runs the corn sheller, the grinder, etc., is also operated with natural gas and there is no trouble in obtaining a supply which has never yet run out. This secures for the Kleinhenz farm admirable advantages which few others possess.

The farm is situated one mile from the shipping point in a section of country remarkable in many respects. It is a good corn and grass section, which guarantees abundant food for hogs. This does not mean that it will insure a profit, but it means that it is necessary to produce it.

The community in which Mr. Kleinhenz resides is one of those model communities, where the rightful authority of constituted churches and schools is zealously maintained and obeyed.

Probably no other section in the country owns and maintains so many fine school edifices. Every two miles a church is located, and it is not a small church of inconsiderable dimension, built and maintained at a trifling cost, but always an expensive structure of large size and beautiful, embellished with the true art of Europe.

There are pipe organs and similar furnishings for the sacred edifices and always a good school beside the church and a resident priest and school teacher. It may well be expected that the character of the farms and farm buildings will reflect the exalted character of the people who reside in this favored locality.

An observer is not disappointed. A general atmosphere of prosperity prevails, which is reflected in the beautiful farms, well tilled fields, orderly fences, excellent roads, comfortable homes and genial, courteous, intelligent citizens.

Those people living under the finished organization of these model communities have demonstrated and are every day demonstrating the practical value of applied religion.

It has part of their daily walk, finding utterance in their cheerful countenances, and revealing itself in the consecrated homes and devoted worship. These communities comprise a little Arcadia in the midst of a busy, heedless world where pastoral security and pastoral pursuits are the reward and occupation of the citizenship.

Let any one think the lives of these people are devoted to hard industry alone, let him reconsider that the homes contain the means for the lighter amenities of life.

There are pianos and other instruments of music with accomplished musicians in the persons of daughters, wives and heads of the families. There are books and magazines and beautiful adornments of homes on all sides.

In the churches are pipe organs as good or better than many city churches contain, with educated players and trained choirs. It would be both pleasant and profitable to continue this description of these communities, which repose so unpretentiously in that part of our commonwealth, but we have not space for further reference to it.

We will only add, what must be patent to all thoughtful observers, that it is in such places we find the true support of our cherished institutions, the real backbone and reliance of our country.

This article would not be complete without a reference to the methods of Mr. Kleinhenz in marketing his hogs. He makes it a rule to keep his hogs until they are fit for market, and then sells them regardless of the price.

He never waits for a future promised rise in the market. And in this his experience reflects that of other feeders who are in the business on a purely commercial basis.

Another fact which is pertinent to this locality, Mr. Kleinhenz sells all his hogs to the Dayton market.

For a number of years he has sold his production to the firm of McLean & Co. of the Union Stock Yards, Dayton, and says he has always received the best of treatment and the highest prices.

This is complimentary, indeed, to our Dayton market and to a well-known firm of commission men.

This article is far from complete, as to tell all that can be observed at the Kleinhenz farm would require pages to relate.

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