A study of the US hog industry

This study has three main objectives. The first objective is a detailed presentation of the landmarks in the U.S. Swine Industry. This objective is purely for information purposes;The second objective is a presentation of the structural characteristics of the U.S. hog production industry. Structural and operating characteristics of hog production in 1975 are identified. The objectives in this section are to identify and quantify important structural characteristics of U.S. hog production. Differing structural characteristics are examined for their implication to efficiency and change in hog production. Periodic update can be made of the more important characteristics to aid identification of trends and future change. Further, the data provide the basis for specifying and determine the relative importance of representative hog enterprises by region, types of hogs produced, size of enterprise, and system of production;The last objective of the study is concerned with estimation of changes in the supply response and supply elasticities in hog production. The major hypothesis advanced is that there have been decreases in the elasticity of supply response for hogs. Forecasting equations are also developed. The total liveweight of hogs supplied is a direct function of number of hogs marketed and their average marketing weight. Separate analyses are done for these components. The analysis is also broken down into Spring and Fall seasons covering two time periods: 1940-1959 and 1960-1977. This is to allow estimates of structural changes over time. Again, separate analysis is done for U.S. as a whole and another for the North Central region. The only factor that appeared consistently important in explaining farrowings was the hog-corn price ratio. In addition, all the results from the elasticity computations indicate a decrease in the elasticity or supply response for hogs over time.