Washington, D. C. | March, 1926 
COST OF PRODUCING HOGS IN IOWA AND ILLINOIS, YEARS 1921-1922? 
By Oscar STEANSON, Assistant Agricultural Economist, and R..H. Witcox, 
Agricultural Economist, Bureau of Agricultural Economics ? 
CONTENTS 
Page Page 
General economic conditions_---_____-_-________ 1 | Cost of producing pork ------- si wewegh dane 7 
polie aren marcia ns oe LER es at 3 | Cost of maintaining the breeding herd__-____--- 11 
Systems ofhog productions. =2522 --<- 322-52 22... 4 | Cost of fattening pigs for market______________- 18 
Methods of conducting study___-______-________ 6 | Financial returns from the hog enterprise_-___- 29 
GENERAL ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 
Violent fluctuations in the prices of corn and hogs following the 
World War brought consideration of the problem of farm costs and 
profits to every Corn Belt farmer as never before. This study of 
costs and methods of hog production was made to determine the 
factors influencing the cost of producing pork in the Corn Belt. 
The influence of the World War upon economic conditions was 
felt in this country before the entrance of the United States into the 
war. By 1917 the price of all commodities had advanced about 80 
per cent above the pre-war price level. The prices of corn and hogs 
equalled the advance in the all-commodity price level during 1916; 
but in 1917 corn prices nearly trebled, and hog prices doubled their 
pre-war levels. The immature corn crop, coupled with the wartime 
demand for pork and its products, caused a precipitate rise in the 
price of corn and hogs above the general level of prices during 1917. 
Corn prices outstripped hog prices, however, and remained above 
them generally for the entire period of inflation as the ratio of corn 
price to hog price reached its peak of 13.6 in 1917 and declined to 
10.7 m 1918, 11.0 in 1919, and 8.7 in 1920. 
_- The deflation period was characterized by two major movements 
in hog prices. The first movement occurred in the summer of 1919, 
1 This study covers the cost of pigs from the date sows were sorted out to be bred until the pigs produced 
by them were disposed of. Pigs born in 1921 are called ‘‘the 1921 pigs,”’ although all of the fall pigs and 
possibly some of the spring pigs born that year were fattened and sold in 1922. In like manner “the 1922 
pigs,’’ born in 1922, were not entirely disposed of until well into the summer of 1923. This study therefore 
i the period from the time sows were selected for breeding in the fall of 1920 weil into the summer of 
2 Credit is due G. S. Klemmedson, of this bureau, for constructive work in helping to organize this study 
and in gathering the field material during the first year, 
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