Effects of selected variables on prices received for feeder pig sales

The feeder pig sales in Cookeville, Tennessee, have established themselves as an important part of the livestock enterprise in the Upper Cumberland area of the state. Farm income from feeder pigs sold in the Cookeville, Tennessee, feeder pig sales has risen from $8,615.00 in 1958 to $3,004,991.55 in 1969. During this eleven-year period the number of pigs sold annually increased from 553 pigs in 1958 to 167,409 in 1969. The number of sales increased from two sales in 1958 to fifty sales in 1969. With the establishment of a regular market outlet for their pigs, swine producers have been able to develop feeder pig producing enterprises on their farms with confidence that they will have a competitive market for their product. Until the organization of feeder pig sales, feeder pit producers were at the mercy of the pig buyer who traveled from farm to farm or who purchases pigs at the regular livestock auction market. Since the beginning of the sales, one (Waddell, 1965) organized statistical analysis has been made of the effects of various factors on the price of feeder pigs sold in the sale. Price per head was added to the present study that was not included in Waddell's (1965) study. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of the following variables on the price per hundredweight and the price per head of feeder pigs sold in the Cookeville, Tennessee, sales from January, 1964, through December, 1967. 1. Grade. 2. Pen size (number of pigs per pen). 3. Pen weight (average). 4. Month of sale. 5. Year. It is hoped that conclusions drawn from this study will be helpful to breeders in planning their swine production programs and that the analyses will yield information which will be useful in improving existing sales and establishing new feeder pig sales in Tennessee.