January 24, 2008

US pig producers enter an era of change until prospects improve

US pig producers brace for an era of change as they ponder on adjustments in operational expenses to weather such adverse predictions of high feed costs and low pork prices, analysts said Tuesday. 

Nearly 60 pork producers spent Tuesday listening to industry and government representatives and researchers from two universities in a conference held in Rossvile High School in Kansas. The aim was to understand better the market trends and generate strategies to overcome ugly projections in the US pork market.

Chris Hurt, a Purdue University Extension agriculture economist, said that this is an era of change for pork producers. He added that pork farmers and their industry will need to make adjustments until prospects improve in 2009.

Hurt explained that the main culprits for bleak predictions in the pork industry are high feed prices, which have driven the expected cost of production up to US$57 per live hundredweight and large pork supplies which would result to the lowest pork prices seen in five years.

Dick Threlkeld, who owns a 4,000-head hog farm near Thorntown, said that he is looking for ways to cut back on some the input costs and somehow tame the overall cost of production.

The conference also covered topics that included air quality in swine production systems, reproductive inefficiencies and failures and how to incorporate dry distillers grains (DDGS).

Dave Murray, vice president of livestock procurement for Indiana Packers Corp., a pork processing facility in Delphi, said price projections being made as far as five years into the future are changing weekly amid growing demand for pork products.

In 2007, 3.73 million hogs were processed nationwide. This is expected to increase to 4 million this year.

Murray pointed that the industry is at a challenging time. He said that last year was better as demand was extremely strong.