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Abstract
The imputed pig death loss contained in the reported monthly U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) pig crop data over the December 1995–June 2006 period ranged from
24.93% to 12.75%. Clearly, there are substantial measurement errors in the USDA
monthly pig crop data. In this paper, we present alternative monthly U.S. pig crop data
using the biological production process, which is compatible with prior knowledge of the
U.S. hog industry. Alternative pig crop data are applied to a slaughter hog model and tested
comparatively to USDA pig crop. Test results reject the validity of USDA pig crop data in
favor of the alternative data.