The Rural Voice, 1979-11, Page 19A Matter of Principle
by J. Carl Hemingway
Are we faced
with a
surplus of hogs?
We hog producers seem to be on the verge of a hog price
crisis. Almost every week we are being advised to hold our
deliveries as much as possible or the numbers going to market
will cause a crash.
Let's think a little. Are we faced with a surplus of hogs? I think
not! It is a surplus of pork that is causing the problem.
After the latest revision of the grading regulations the Dept. of
Agriculture advised us producers that the most profitable
dressed weight for market hogs was as close to 175 lbs. as
possible.
But conditions have changed greatly in the past few months.
Little pigs have dropped drastically and the cost of feed has
risen considerably.
Since the heavier a hog gets, the more feed is required to
produce a pound of pork, the most profitable weight to sell
market hogs drops. It could well be that the most profitable
weight might well be as low as 165 lbs. dressed.
Since it looks as if shipping too much pork to market is the
problem. it could be cured by putting our hogs on a diet for a
couple of weeks so that we can continue to ship the same
numbers of hogs but reduce the pounds of pork.
In other words we can't quickly reduce the number of hogs
going to market unless we simply kill them and send them to the
"dead -stock" for pet food or more likely fertilizer.
We can put them on a maintenance diet instead of a gaining
diet. We will hold our hogs that we presently have at 165 Ib.
dressing weight and ship the ones that are in 170 to 180 lb.
dressing weight range.
In a couple of weeks the heavy hog will be gone and we can
ship hogs at 165 lbs. We won't reduce the number of hogs going
to market but we can reduce the pork by 10 lbs. per pig. We have
been shipping an average of about 80,000 hogs per week. A ten
pound reduction per carcass would be 800,000 lbs. or close to
5,000 hogs. This would be the same as reducing our shipments to
75,000 per week which the market apparently can handle at a
profitable price to the farmer without making any great
difference to the consumer.
If the price of pork should rise too much there will be an
incentive to the farmer to increase the dressed weight which will
hold the price reasonably steady.
If the consumers choose to react too violently they will have to
contend with shortages of pork similar to what we have in the
beef industry.
HELM WELDING LIMITED
RR 2, Lucknow 529-7627
1/2 mile south of Lucknow
Feed tanks are built of
14 gauge metal, paint-
ed blue. They are
ruggedly reinforced
with heavy angle iron
ring and legs. All
tanks are of side draw
off design. Capacity:
sizes range from 4 to
20 tons. Prices include
ladder, blow pipe for
filling, manhole and
inspect ion g lass.
Requires concrete pad
base 91/2' x 91/2'
square, 10" deep, re-
inforced with steel.
We also specialize in
building gravity
boxes, farm wagons,
bale stook loaders,
and general fabric-
ation.
W.D.HOPPER & SONS
Water Well Drilling
R.R.2 SEAFORTH
Members of the Ontario Water Well Assoc.
. Prompt Reliable Service
. Free Estimates
. 4 Modern Rotary Rigs
Call Collect
Neil
James
Durl
Scaforth
Scaforth
Scaforth
527-1737
527-0775
527-0828
'Where Hopper Goes the Water Flows'
SINCE 1915
THE RURAL VOICE/NOVEMBER 1979 PG. 17