A COMPONENT PRICING SYSTEM FOR PORK

Value-based marketing of pork has become much more prevalent over the past five years in the United States. However, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), through its Lean Value Task Force, has expressed concern that current value-based marketing systems are not adequate in conveying consumer preferences back to the producer. In response, the NPPC issued a call for a system which priced animals based on 'pounds of quality lean'. This paper presents a value-based marketing system developed in response to this call. The component pricing models are clearly more accurate than live weight pricing. Adding more components improves the precision of the component model. The TOBEC device provides the most accurate estimates of carcass composition and value. The optical probe, while slightly less accurate than the TOBEC device, produces unbiased estimates of carcass value which are more accurate than pricing on a live weight basis