April  25,   1957
Economic and Marketing Information
FOR INDIANA  FARMERS
Monthly Farrowing—Will It Boost Your Profits?
by J. E. KADLEC, J. O. DUNBAR, and E. W. KEHRBERG, Agricultural Economics
WHICH HOG SYSTEM should
ff you use to make the most money
on your farm? This question is
raised by many Indiana farmers who
use the two-litter system but are
thinking of changing to multiple farrowing. Some are thinking of farrowing two or three months in succession twice a year. Others are thinking of going all the way to farrowing every month in the year. A few
are thinking of various other systems of multiple farrowing.
More and more hog farmers are
specializing in order to gain labor
efficiency and cut production costs.
As this takes place, with hog enterprises becoming larger, farmers are
jivesting greater amounts of capital
ln specialized buildings and equipment.
Nearly   everyone   recognizes   that
the cost of buildings and equipment
per hog produced can be reduced by
a system of farrowing which uses
the farrowing house and equipment
more often rather than a system which
leaves them idle much of the time.
Some farmers may, therefore, find it
profitable to farrow continuously.
But most will not, because (1) savings in cost become less with each
additional time the equipment is used.
(21 average sale price of hogs farrowed every month is lower, (3)
more labor may be required during
cropping season, and (4) management requirements are increased.
Costs
If you were to increase the number of sows farrowed and change
from a system of farrowing in February and August over to farrowing
in January and February and July
and August, you would cut your farrowing house costs about in half for
each sow and two-litters raised
(Table 1). In addition, you would
reduce costs of other items such as
feed and water equipment, portable
housing and the like by $2.66. This
would mean a total reduction in cost
of $9.16 per sow and two litters
raised; or about 30 cents per cwt.
of hogs produced.
To go further, if you were to
change to a system of farrowing in
December, January. February and
June. July and August, vou would
save another $3.27 (total) per sow
and two-litters: or another 10 cents
more per cwt. produced. This makes
a total of about 40 cents per cwt.
Now then, if you were to go to a
system of farrowing every month,
you would save another $9.31. This
is an additional 30 cents per cwt.
Thus, the total amount per cwt. saved,
changing from a conventional two-
litter system (farrowing in February
and August only) to monthly farrowing, is about 70 cents. Over half of
this, 40 cents, is saved by shifting to
farrowing in December, January.
February and June, July and August.
Gross Returns
If we assume (1) that hogs are
sold 6 months after they are farrowed, and (2) that prices will vary-
seasonally as they did from the 1950-
54 Indianapolis average (Table 2),
there isn't much difference in gross
receipts per sow and two-litter far-
rowings in February-August vs January, February-July, August vs December, January, February - June,
July. August (Table 1). However,
there is a reduction of $20-$25 per
sow and two-litters in receipts from
hogs raised under the monthly farrowing system. This is due mainly to
the fact that under the first three
systems, a farmer sells half of his
hogs during the summer months
when the seasonal price is high, while
under the monthly farrowing system,
only one-fourth of the hogs are sold
during these months.
Labor
This is the most important factor
in most cases. Continuous farrowing
requires about the same amount of
labor each month, while the cropping