Abstract
The production structure in the U. S. hog industry has observed drastic changes in recent years, and these changes are derived from the technical developments since 1970s. These developments depended on capitalintensive production and the scale-up of the hog industry became even clearer as the size of the production units became bigger and bigger. As a result, family-owned farms which are more specifically and intensively engaged in hog industry grew more popular ane the forms of business operations in this industry have been changed into those of partnership or corporation. In this article, we analyzed the processes of technological developments and management styles in U. S. hog industry in order to discuss the effects of economics of scale in competition in various regions.
The hog production in corn-belt states used to be of smaller scales, and the management of the hog industry in these areas used to be combined with self-supplied feedstuff from farms. The developments of the technology, e. g. in nutrition and housing, were more or less inhibited until the 1960s. However, the shift from pasture-farming system into overall house-feeding system contributed to labor-saving and improvement of feed efficiency in the phases of farrowing, nurseries and growing-finishing.
The operation consistent from farrowing up to finishing was a dominant form in the regions surrounding the corn-belt states hand in hand with the feeder pig finishing operations in the corn-belt states and the system for management was then differentiated more or less, but the operation consistent from farrowing up to finishing remained predominant. The large-scale hog industry operations could be materialized in the Southeastern states where the operation used to be more dependent upon the commercial feed than in the corn-belt states. This trend was especially clear in North Calorina State which is geographycally close to the big market in the Eastern states. A little behind this trend, growth of large-scale operations could be noted also in the corn-belt states, where the overall economic conditions are gerenally more advantageous than in the Southeastern states. This advantage can be claimed to be attributable to the fact that the operations in the corn-belt states are based on diversified sources, whereas those in the Southeastern states are based on family-owned intensive style which is more dependent upon the self-supplied feedstuff.
