Product Quality

For the modern pork producer, product quality is important because you want to be able to provide a safe and wholesome product for the consumer to enjoy. Producing pork of the highest quality takes time and effort. Herd health, care, and nutrition also have an important part to play.

Product Quality and Grades of Pork

The quality of the meat you produce very much depends on your herd’s welfare, health, and providing an environment where there are low levels of stress. How you care for the animals you rear plays a huge part in producing the best quality meat for the consumer.

High-quality meat starts with animal care and includes the handling of the animals, ensuring they are in the best of health, have all the right nutrition in their diet, and are transported humanely. The way an animal is cared for affects the color, juiciness, and tenderness of the meat. See more resources on swine health and care in the section dedicated to this topic.

Pork meat is not graded by the USDA in the same way as beef. Meat is graded according to the thickness of the back fat and carcass muscling, among other things.

Pork Quality Assurance

If you want to learn and understand the best practices to promote food safety, take a look at the Pork Quality Assurance® Plus (PQA® Plus) education and certification program. It includes handbooks, program requirements, antibiotics resources, a site assessment guide, on-farm forms, and all the necessary reference material.

The program encompasses food safety, animal well-being, on-farm assessments, environmental protection, animal care, and worker safety.

Training is provided and on-farm assessments are made by certified PQA Plus Advisors, of which there are more than 1,200 across the United States. They are drawn from veterinary practices, university Extensions, and agricultural education establishments.

Pork Processing and Products

Competition in the pork production industry is fierce. When it comes to processing, using a trustworthy slaughter-processing company is crucial. The final price you can expect when your hogs are sold to a major packer is dependent on several things, not so much the yield of the hog either.

Live animals are differentiated according to breed, weight, muscling, loin eye size, and loin eye marbling. However, the most important determinant is the percentage of lean meat compared to bone and fat.

Kill and cut costs are lower at a multi-plant operation, while custom slaughter operations tend to charge more. The most popular cut for sellers is the loin, which means it attracts the highest price.

Less attractive cuts such as spare ribs, back ribs, and hocks earn a lower price and tend to be processed further into sausages, hot dogs, luncheon meat, bacon, and ham. It’s only when a brand and logo are added that these processed pork products gain value.

In such a harsh and competitive environment, the best way for the small producer to survive is by finding a niche market such as a breed-specific pig or by working with small specialty retailers for whom quality and service are fundamental to their operation.