Marketing Meat-Type Hogs: Problems, Practices, and Potentials in the United States and Canada

Excerpts from the report Introduction: In submitting its report on the Department of Agriculture and Farm Credit Administration Appropriation Bill for 1958, the Subcommittee on Agriculture of the House Committee on Appropriations gave particular emphasis to what is often called the meat-type hog problem. The subcommittee stated that during the previous year it had received considerable testimony on this subject. There was general agreement that an expanded production of meat-type hogs is desirable. Hogs of meat -type strains have been developed in this country for some time. Members of the subcommittee said that farmers developing meat-type hogs do not find it possible to obtain a fair price in the market for their extra efforts. Consumers might consume more pork if they were assured of tasty, lean pork. Hog producers and the entire hog industry suffer because of the lack of price advantage that would encourage the production of a type of pork more marketable at the retail level. The subcommittee indicated that it understood that Canada has made progress in providing incentives for the production of this type of animal, and that the progress is reflected in increased markets and prices for Canadian hogs, especially for A grade carcasses. The subcommittee recommended that appropriate officials of the Department make a thorough study of the Canadian program so as to develop better markets and prices to American hog producers. In response to that request, the Department sent a team of seven swine production and marketing specialists to visit Canada. The study team was instructed to pay particular attention to the grading and marketing methods in Canada. It was to appraise the effects of these methods on the characteristics of pork production in Canada and to give attention to the methods and techniques used in swine improvement. This report consists of three main sections. The first section discusses the emergence of the pork quality problem in the United States and some of the basic economic trends with which it has been associated. The second section reports on the history, the experience, and the present status of the Canadian swine industry in solving its problems with respect to producing and marketing its bacon-type hog. A final section appraises progress made in both countries, and discusses possible alternative courses of action for this country to follow, so as to produce and market a type of hog that yields less fat and more lean meat.