An Empirical Investigation of Live-Hog Demand

An inverse live-hog model was estimated to analyze whether there has been a recent increase in the magnitude of live-hog, own-quantity demand flexibility. Estimating the impact of processing capacity-utilization rate changes on live-hog prices was a second objective of this research. Results indicate that live hog prices have become more responsive to changes in hog slaughter, slaughter weight, cold storage stocks, and changes in the processing capacity-utilization rate. Finally, model results indicate that the sharp increase in processing capacity-utilization rates, the increase in average dressed weight, and the increase in hog slaughter all had a negative effect on the live-hog prices.