Grades of Hogs Slaughtered in the United States, September 1960 through August 1961

Excerpts from the report: During World War II, farmers' cash receipts for hogs accounted for nearly half of their receipts for all meat animals. By 1959, this proportion had been reduced to just over one-fourth. Hogs are still an important source of income to farmers, but their importance may continue to decline unless farmers produce more meat-type and fewer lard-type hogs than they are now doing. Information on the proportion of market hogs in the different grades has been fragmentary and conjectural, and no estimates of known reliability have previously been made for any wide area. Accurate estimates of the proportion of butcher hogs coming to market in each of the grades will help provide a benchmark from which progress in improving hog quality can be measured. In this study, a randomly selected sample of packing plants was visited by a hog grading specialist. The grader spent at least 2 full days at each plant, 1 or 2 days in the fall or winter of 1960-61 and 1 or 2 days 6 months later. He graded a sample of each plant's hog carcasses as they moved by him on the killing line, just before they went into the cooler. The grader measured and graded every second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth carcass passing him, depending upon rail speed. During this one-year survey, about 45,000 barrow or gilt carcasses and about 6,000 sow carcasses were measured and graded.