Issues loom over hog farmers as they gather in Des Moines

—The Western Producer’s Ed White reports this week from the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa.

North America’s hog industry is grappling with multiple issues these days, but is presently feeling better than some of the other livestock industries. That doesn’t mean that everything’s great, but not yet having to deal with avian flu infections is keeping hog farmers in a cautiously optimistic mood about their challenges.

Top of the challenges this year, as it was last year, is the impact of Proposition 12, the California law that tightly restricts how much room each gestating sow is required to have in a barn, an amount that only a minority of the North American sow herd can satisfy. According to the National Pork Producer Council’s Brian Humphreys, California pork consumption has fallen 20 per cent while prices have risen 20 per cent.

Read Also

Bank of Canada interest rate cut to give some borrowers relief

The Bank of Canada trimmed its key policy rate on Wednesday to 4.75 per cent from a 23-year high of five per cent.
Inflation is now running at 2.7 per cent, above the central bank’s two per cent target, but down from a high of 8.1 per cent in June 2022, Reuters reported.

“This is hitting people back in the state of California,” said Humphreys.

It isn’t just a California situation. Numerous states are considering their own laws to control the gestation spaces for pigs that end up on their states’ grocery store shelves.

Humphreys said farmers aren’t sure what to do. Some states have no set requirements. California has its specific rules. Other states might producer a hodgepodge of rules and regulations.

“How do you separate (pigs) within a barn?” posed Humphreys.

Producers are anxious about the outbreak of H5N1 in poultry and dairy herds, worried that they could see the same species jump that has afflicted dairy herds.

Farm Bill expectations are also top of mind for American producers, but since I get very confused by all the complexities of the Farm Bill, I’m not going to say anything at all about it until I figure it out.