Abstract
The development of hog enterprise depends on the increase of inputs of various factors and the improvement of labor productivity. In an individual hog farm management, the factors of inputs can be expressed by the function of a number of market hogs and the changes in the productivity of labor in terms of gain of body weight per man hour can be used as the indicator of technological progress. Therefore, the development of hog enterprise can be achieved by increasing the amount of factors of inputs and raising the productivity of labor or technological progress. The development of hog enterprise can be analysed by the abovementioned two factors: the enlargement of farm size and the improvement of labor productivity. In this report, the productivity of labor is estimated from the hog production cost surveyed by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The author estimates that in the 1960 to 1971 period the annual improvement of labor productivity in hog enterprise was 15.2 percent. Of this amount, approximately 8.2 percent was from an increase in the number of market hogs, 7.0 percent from increased technological progress in the hog farm keeping average 100 head of market hogs. Marginal productivity of labor against the number of pigs was improved at an annual rate of 14.0 percent. The surge of labor productivity depends largely on a decrease in the amount of labor per pig. However, according to the enlargement of farm size, the decreasing rate of labor per pig becomes small and the rate of improvement of labor productivity tends to decrease. The author makes clear the relationships between labor productivity and its components which are the amount of labor, gain of body weight, number of market pigs, invested capital and ratio of purchased feed cost to total feed cost. The main factors for improving the labor productivity were purchased feed cost ratio and the number of market hogs. Since the purchased feed cost ratio is 93.2 percent in 1971, it is difficult to increase the ratio further and the effect of number of market hogs to increase labor productivity tends to decline. Hereafter, the improvement of labor productivity in hog enterprise depends mainly on the further investment of capital and the further improvement of hog farm organization.
