This effort including transporting the animals to a slaughtering facility at the University of Wisconsin, organizing volunteers to wrap the meat in portions, and delivering it to pantries. When word of the first donation of 25 animals was announced in the media, other hog producers came forward and brought the total number of donated hogs to 40. The farmers who donated the animals may qualify for a tax deduction for their charitable gift, a hedge in a year when losses in this enterprise were very high. Hog producers considering whether to stay in the pork business learned ways to cut overhead costs by selling hogs at a lower weight and adjusting feeding as the animals nutritional needs changes. These cost-cutting guidelines were prepared by a University of Wisconsin animal scientist and Extension specialist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
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