The objectives of this report are to describe the structure of the slaughter hog marketing system in Michigan, and to investigate certain aspects of the market's performance. Four aspects of market performance are discussed: 1) the problem of accurate communication of supply and demand to producers; 2) the problem of communicating carcass quality characteristics to producers in a way that promotes more effective production management; 3) the ability of the market system to serve the varied production requirements of the different kinds of packers present in the state; and 4) the ability of the system to promote an accurate refection of value to the buyer in the price paid to the producer. This report also discusses ten methods of slaughter hog marketing, nine of which are actively employed in Michigan.