Many factors are affecting the swine industry, including record high feed prices, high Canadian dollar, drought, BSE, etc. All of these factors have resulted in a reduction of 5 to $10.00 per hog marketed. In order to find an adequate packer plant for an operation, several things need to be determined. Returns need to be investigated via sending a test load to the packer. This should be a representative load of an operations average or by generating a spreadsheet of settlement grids, bonus structures, and carcass information. With this, producers can model returns that can be seen from various packers. Ultimately, producers can keep an eye on individual marketing results over a prolonged period of time. Taking into account weight and lean yield distribution, loin size, demerits, freight (based on packer location), pool price, time period of study, and long run variations, producers can get a feel for which packer can provide the greatest profit for them.