Big pigs are here to stay.
Packers and processors have grown used to them, and producers find growing pigs heavier is a cheap way to increase pork production, says the chief economist of the United States National Pork Producers Council.
“I think there’s not really a whole lot of limit on the market weights in the U.S. as long as genetics keeps up,” Steve Meyer told the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium.
The weight of market hogs has risen dramatically in the past few years, especially during the hog price crash of late 1998-early 1999.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
While some of this increase in weight was a result of producers holding back pigs in hopes of getting better prices later, most was due to cheap feed grains giving the pig producer an inexpensive way to increase production.
Hog prices have recovered and market weights have stayed high.
Don Hrapchak, the manager of Saskatchewan’s SPI Marketing Group, said average prairie hog weights have increased in the past three years from about 83 kilograms per animal (dressed) to 85.6. Ten years ago, most hogs sent to market weighed about 107 kg. live. Now the average is 118 to 122 kg.
Meyer said large hog carcasses take slightly more labor to process, but produce enough extra pork to make it worthwhile. And consumers haven’t yet balked at eating larger cuts.
“A pork chop is still smaller than a steak,” said Meyer.
Too fatty
In the past, hog weights have been kept lower because fat content tends to rise at a certain point, affecting quality and price.
But with improvements in genetics, hogs can be grown larger with little or no decrease in quality, Meyer said.
University of Missouri hog market analyst Ron Plain said average hog weights have been increasing one pound per year for 40 years and he expects the trend to continue.
Hrapchak said the noticeable increase in prairie slaughter weights has two prime causes. Packers such as Schneider’s, Fletcher’s and Maple Leaf have been calling for bigger market hogs.
And the new barns that have been built in the last few years allow producers to grow bigger pigs. Most prairie hog barns were built in the 1970s and 1980s, when market hogs were substantially smaller, so they weren’t able to grow larger animals.
But the large-scale barns built recently are designed to produce bigger pigs and these have started swelling slaughter weights.
