Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 337 



the cooler at a temperature of 34 degrees F. for 48 hours before it is 

 taken to the cutting room for division into the wholesale cuts. Nearly 

 all carcasses are cut, and most of the cuts are cured by pickling and 

 smoking before the meat is sold to the retailer. 



The method outlined above is known as the "packer" style of 

 dressing. The legs, feet, and jowl are left as part of the carcass. An 

 exception is made in the case of pigs and some light hogs intended for 

 the fresh pork trade, these being "shipper" dressed, which means that 

 the head is left on, the leaf fat and kidneys in, the hams not faced, and 

 the backbone not split. Some variation also occurs in the manner of 

 splitting the carcass. All dressed hogs are cut open along the under- 

 line and through the aitch bone and brisket, but the best heavy car- 

 casses, called "loin carcasses," are split through the center of the back- 



FlG. 125. — Dressing hogs. 



bone, while the inferior heavy carcasses, called "packing carcasses," 

 are sometimes split on one side of the backbone. Bacon carcasses are 

 usually cut with a knife on each side of the backbone and then split on 

 one side and the backbone taken out, making sides suitable for the 

 English bacon cuts. 



The ofifal and the dressing percentage. — The parts which the hog 

 loses in dressing are the blood, hair, head, viscera, leaf fat, kidneys, and 

 ham facings. Hogs having a live weight above 150 pounds and dressed 

 packer style may range in dressing percentage from 65 to 80 per cent. 

 Pigs weighing 30 pounds may dress as low as 60 per cent. Hogs 

 dressed shipper style have a dressing percentage about 8 per cent higher 

 than those dressed packer style, the difference being due to the head, 

 leaf fat, kidneys, and ham facings, which are not removed in the shipper 



