338 



Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



style of dressing. Heavy hogs dressed shipper style easily dress 83 to 

 85 per cent. Some hogs in the carcass contests at the International 

 Live Stock Show have dressed as high as 89, 89.3, and 89.6, but these 

 were hogs of show-yard quality weighing 417, 429, and 520 pounds 

 respectively. They had been without feed or water for more than 24 

 hours prior to killing, and were dressed shipper style. The chief factors 

 determining the dressing percentage of a hog are fatness and paunchi- 

 ness, of which the former is by far the more important. Dressing per- 

 centage is an important factor determining the price of market hogs, 

 though less important than with cattle and sheep because market hogs 

 are more uniform in dressing percentage than market cattle or market 

 sheep. Market hogs of the same weight show much less variation in 

 dressing percentage than do cattle or sheep of a given weight. 



Fig. 126. — Shipper-dressed carcasses in the cooler. 



Qualifications of a good carcass. — The value of the lard-hog car- 

 cass depends upon shape, finish, quality, and weight. The require- 

 ments in these respects are as follows: 



1. Shape. — The most desired carcass is straight and even in its 

 lines, wide in proportion to its length, well developed in the back, loin, 

 sides, and hams, well developed but free from heaviness or coarseness 

 in shoulders and neck, and smooth throughout. A neat, trim carcass 

 is wanted that is free from prominence on the underline. Hence, 

 barrows are always preferred to sows because sows carry more cheap 

 belly meat, this being especially true of sows that have had several 

 litters of pigs. Such sows are called "seedy," and they bring a lower 



