356 Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



and high in price, and corn is plentiful and cheap, hog growers feed 

 more heavily during the fattening period, feed for a longer period, and 

 send their hogs to market at a greater age and weight and carrying a 

 higher finish than usual. As a rule, heavy yearly average weights 

 indicate the years in which pork production was most profitable, and 

 vice versa. 



Chicago monthly average weights. — Following are the monthly 

 and yearly average weights of hogs received at Chicago for ten years. 

 The highest monthly average of each year is printed in bold type and 

 the lowest monthly average is enclosed in parenthesis. At the right 

 of the table are the monthly averages and the general average for the 

 entire ten-year period r^ 



In seven of the ten years and in the ten-year averages, August 

 weights are heaviest. November weights average lightest. In four 

 years the lightest averages occured in January, but in each instance 

 these were heavier than those of the preceding November. December 

 averages were lightest in two years. The light November average is 

 due to the fact that spring pigs then first appear in relatively large 

 numbers. Heavy weights in July, August, and September are due to 

 the holding back of young hogs in the country until the corn crop is 

 matured and used for fattening. Relatively few hogs are received 

 during August and September but the receipts include a larger propor- 

 tion of aged hogs than in other months, the result of marketing brood 

 sows that were culled and fed after spring litters were weaned. The 

 ten-year averages show that the average weight of market hogs rises 

 from November to April, but remains almost constant during April, 

 May, and June. Fall-farrowed pigs arrive during May and June in 



^Compiled from Drovers Journal Year Books of Figures, 



