Lower Canadian pork imports cut Iowa corn demand

Canadian pig imports are expected to be little more than 1.5 million this year, which would result in a drop in demand for Iowa's corn.

As recently as 2008, the Canadian province of Manitoba sent almost 2.8 million newly weaned pigs to Iowa to eat enough corn to grow from 14 pounds to the 270-pound weight for slaughter.

A hog typically eats between 10 and 11 bushels of corn during its five or so months of life before going to the slaughterhouse.

Manitoba's shipments of hogs to the US for slaughter may be down as much as 90% this year. Analysts cited that as a reason why Smithfield Foods is closing the John Morrell plant in Sioux City that traditionally was a destination for Canadian hogs.

The Canadian government is paying their hog producers to get out of the business, hoping to raise prices. But Karl Kynoch, chairman of the Manitoba Pork Council, said the labelling law of country-of-origin is one of the main reasons for the decrease in the number of pigs coming south.

"A Canadian weanling - a pig taken from its mother at 14 pounds - who gains most of its weight in an Iowa barn eating Iowa corn is really more of an Iowa animal by the time it goes to slaughter," said Kynoch.

Many Iowa hog feeders who wished to avoid the expense and labour of farrowing and weaning hogs and just feed them traditionally have bought much of their inventory from Canada.

Meanwhile, when the labelling portion of the law went into effect last year, meatpackers such as Smithfield, Tyson and Excel said it would be prohibitively expensive to separate US hogs and pork from imports.