Show PUN A MOHE HOGS FOH UTAH GHO director william peterson of U S A C explains new plan officials of the agricultural adjustment administration have nade made a call for a referendum vote on october 26 to determine whether or not the corn hog program shall continue after novem ber 30 1935 the date when the present contract ends the vote Is s intended to provide a free expression for those who are in favor of continuing the program and those hose who are opposed unfortunately in utah there is a supposition that the corn com ho hog program during the past two years has compelled a great reduction in the number of ho bogs gs produced this statement seems to be contrary to existing conditions in 1934 there were 2666 producers who signed the corn com hog bog contract in this state the first contract requested the signers to make a 25 per cent reduction of the average production of which permitted a 75 per cent production the contract contained no minimum after reducing 25 per cent of this average production the contract signers were permitted a production in 1934 of market hogs they actually produced only 16 head or 37 per cent of the total they could produce under the limitations of the contract in 1935 there are 2070 corn com hog signers in utah the required reduction in the contract for 1935 is only 10 per cent below the number of hogs raised during the period 1932 1933 the contract signers therefore have a permitted production after subtraction of the ten per cent of the tot total al of market hogs the me summer check upon the number of hogs that have been produced so far and the probable number of ran fall litters expected to be produced is a total of hogs for this year or about 61 per cent of what they could produce under the limitations of the contract these figures indicate that the production of hogs in utah in 1934 and 1935 is not very different from what would have been the case had there been no corn com hog contract signers only an occasional farmer has limited his production on account of the contract nearly all the signers have produced all they otherwise would if there had been no contract the drop in the number of contract signers of from 1934 to 1935 was caused partly because of the fact that in 1935 the production required at least 25 per cent of the number of hogs produced during the base period of A substantial number of contract signers have been compelled to return the first benefit payment check because their production has not met the 25 per cent requirement under the 1935 contract these figures do not indicate that hog production in utah has haa been handicapped by the signing of the contract the reduction may have been due largely to the drouth period the high price of at grain ain and the very low price paid for hogs in the fall of 1934 at the present price the hog business is profitable but it will take some time for the farmers to accumulate breeding stock which would allow production up to the maximum allowed under the contract which is 90 per cent of the hogs produced during the base period 1932 1933 to date there has been received in utah in corn hog benefit payments the coming vote permits an expression from any farmer who raised corn or hogs this year whether he signed a contract or not it Is hoped that a substantial number of producers will vote |