Supply area optimization in the western Canadian hog market

Abstract

Growing interest in the teletype marketing system of selling hogs, following the implementation of such a system in Ontario and Manitoba, and the possibility of an integrated Western Canadian system, prompted the initiation of this study. The object of the study was to determine the optimum number, size, and location of assembly yard facilities in the prairie provinces in order to minimize the cost of marketing the region's hogs. It was felt this would provice a good basis for the extension of the existing systems and the implementation of any additional systems into the region. Data for the study was obtained from the Manitoba Hog Marketing Commission, the Western Tariff Bureau, the Ontario Hog Producers Co-operative, as well as the 1961 Census of Agriculture and other Dominion Bureau of Statistics publications. The approach in this study included the obtaining of the functional cost of transporting hogs from avialable data by different types of trucks and the application of these functions to a matrix of distances between points on the Prairies... These results showed the flow patterns of hogs from producing regions to designated assembly yards and then to final plants as well as the costs associated with the system. The results showed: 1. The choice of 26 assembly yards a. In the three province model: 3 in Manitoba, 9 in Saskatchewan, and 14 in Alberta. 2. Back-hauling in eastern Saskatchewan when the assembly function is restricted to within the province hogs. 3. A slight increase in total cost when assembly is restricted to within the province hogs. 4. Efficiency would be increased by reducing the number of assembly yards presently operating in Alberta and Saskatchewan.