Effects of Marketing Decisions on Net Present Value of Pork Production for Independent and Allied Swine Producers

Competitive environments in swine production make management strategies that increase profitability important. An open-coded model to evaluate the economic impact of two marketing strategies is developed for swine finishing operations. Higher profits are realized for a fixed-date marketing strategy in allied production than for a fixed-target-weight marketing strategy in independent production. Producing pigs to weights heavier than the average market weight also increases profits. Shipping pigs over a shortened time from a barn and decreasing time between batches of pigs improves profits if it can be done with a tighter weight distribution of pigs produced. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.