Commodity Trading: Lean
Hog Futures
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Supply
/ Production Considerations
The
change from small to large Hog producers dominating the pork industry has
changed the nature of the Hog supply.
Today, systems producers, who typically use large
controlled-environment buildings known as "hog factories"
dominate Hog production. These
facilities make handling Hogs easier by providing for more direct
observation of animals, allowing greater control over the production
process and protecting both the animals and the workers from heat, cold,
rain, and snow. Because of
the close supervision of the production process and the complete control
of the environment, swine production system facilities generally are able
to produce a market weight Hog faster and cheaper since feed efficiency is
better than small-scale outdoor facilities.
Feed and labor are the two largest variable costs faced by Hog
producers. So even though the
"hog factories" require a larger initial investment, the cost
savings over time definitely give these operations a distinct cost
advantage compared to the small-scale old fashioned pen based method.
Hog
Production Stages & Timetable
No
matter what production system is used to raise Hogs, the timetable is
typically the same. The
gestation (pregnancy) time for a sow is 114 days.
The average liter size is 9 to 10 piglets, with a practical range
of 6 to 13 per liter. Roughly
3 to 4 weeks after pigs are farrowing (birthing), the liter is weaned from
their mother and moved to the nursery or grower stage.
During this developmental stage, pigs are fattened from 10 to 15
pounds up to between 40 and 60 pounds on a highly concentrated diet of
grain, plant proteins, and milk products.
Once the pigs reach "growing weight" of 40 to 60 pounds,
they are separated by sex. Both
barrows (MALES) and gilts (FEMALES) are fed up to nine different diets of
consisting mainly of corn, barley, milo (grain sorghum), oats and
sometimes wheat for dietary carbohydrates and fat, while oilseed meals
(mainly soybean meal) is used as the primary source of protein used to
build the leaner and more muscular Hogs of today.
This process typically takes between 38 and 42 weeks for the
barrows and gilts to reach market weight of 250 pounds from their starting
weights of 40 to 60 pounds.
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