26 BULLETIN 1381, U. 8. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
TaBLeE 18.—Relation of the equipment charge per sow to the number of pigs weaned 
and the costs in producing pork 
Number of 4 Equip- | Cost of 
ee pigs weaned P cor Tear Cost ment produc- | Profit 
: Num-| ber of | Pe? SOW bred pork pro-| of man of feed | charge ing 100 per 
Equipment ber of | sows duced | labor per per per 100 |pounds of} sow 
charge per sow farms | per _ by two- | sow per SOW pounds | market- | per 
fan ‘ : litter season | Per sea- of pork, jable pork,| sea- 
Spring | Fall system son spring spring son 
and fall | and fall 
1921 
Under $4... _-___- 13 25 AS? | SeRte 0 7.4 | $11. 86 $0. 39 $5. 63 | $17. 51 
TO a 16 21 47 |'e4a1 44 ( O- 10. 71 .39 5.14 30. 06 
$6 and over______- 15 12 0.8 |r 60 Diem 11. 76 . 64 5. 67 22. t1 
1922 
Under $4_--____-_- 13 29 3.9] 49 69 6. 2 7. 82 27 5.47 | 13. 59 
EO ee La 16 20 3.9} 49 62 6.7 11. 51 39 6.14 10. 93 
$6 and over______- 10 13 4.7 4.7 50 10.0 10. 46 59 6. 16 9. 78 
The average cost for depreciation, upkeep, and taxes on equipment 
per 100 pounds of marketable pork was 21 cents in 1921 and 17 cents 
in 1922. Asan average, the greater cost of more expensive equipment 
may be balanced by savings in labor and eliminating unpleasant 
conditions as a result of more convenient equipment. The necessity 
of making full use of equipment is emphasized by the wide variations 
in cost of equipment per 100 pounds in those groups which contain 
only Song farms. The production program of a hog raiser 
should be studied in its relation to the cost of equipment before large 
amounts of farm savings are spent in buildings and equipment. 
The pasture charge is the fourth largest item in the cost of growing 
pork, as determined from this study. Local rates of annual cash 
rent were used for the different kinds of pasture. The total cost of 
the pasture was divided between the various classes of livestock 
using it as equitably as possible. 
The miscellaneous costs are the charges for veterinary, death risk, 
overhead, taxes, and other incidental expense. Table 2 (p. 8) 
shows the relative importance of these items in relation to total cost. 
As a group, these costs varied from 10.6 cents to $3.52 per 100 pounds 
of pork in 1921 and from 15.3 cents to $1.24 per 100 pounds in 1922. 
The extreme high costs of this group are invariably due to charges 
for death risk, resulting from losses in the breeding herd. Veterinary 
costs include expense for professional veterinary services, serum and 
virus for vaccination, capsules and other vermifuges, medicine, dis- 
infectant, and tonic. Salt and minerals are included in the feed cost 
and not in the veterinary costs. The farm labor required to admin- 
ister these services is included in the labor charge. The relative 
importance of the different items included in the veterinary charge is 
shown in Table 19. In 1921 the veterinary charge averaged 26 cents 
and varied from no charge to 88 cents per 100 pounds gain. In 1922 
the variations ran from no charge to 54 cents per 100 pounds gain, 
with an average of 16 cents. 
The charge for death risk in this study is determined by the initial 
value of any animals in the breeding herd which died during the year. 
Table 20 gives a summary of the causes of the deaths, together with 
the average weight and value before loss. In 1921 the number of 
animals in the breeding herd that died during the year was 4.8 per 
