9 Questions Pork Industry Leaders Challenge You to Think About
2022 has been filled with challenges and opportunities in the pork sector. No one would say it’s been an easy year on anyone. As we prepare for 2023, Farm Journal’s PORK asked producers and industry leaders to weigh in on this: What is the most important question the pork industry needs to ask itself heading into a new year? Here’s what’s on their minds.
Jarrod Bakker, Iowa pig farmer
“What is going to happen with input costs and overall commodity prices?”
Scott Brown, University of Missouri economist
“The question most important for the pork industry to address is where the future growth in pork consumption will come in the world. Although demand has been strong in the U.S. over the past several years, consumption growth is likely more substantial in the rest of the world and requires a commitment to growing pork markets in other countries.”
Bill Even, National Pork Board CEO
“What is our vision for a successful U.S. pork industry for the next 10 years? Regardless of the year, there will always be risks and opportunities for the pork industry. When I was in high school, it was pseudorabies and moving to a leaner hog. When I was raising pigs, it was the move to indoor production with modern barns and the rise of contract production. Today it’s the risk of foreign animal diseases such as African swine fever and managing feed cost and food price inflation. So, the question becomes: What is our vision to build the right type of industry organization structure at the state and national level to align with the pork producers’ risks and opportunities of tomorrow? If we get our vision and structure correct, we will be successful no matter what the world throws at us. Bringing together all types of producer leaders, ages, production types, geographies and sizes to develop a thoughtful, inclusive vision that unifies us to be strong and successful 10 years from now is what we owe the producer leaders that came before us and the next generation of producers that will come after us.”
Gregg Hora, Iowa pig farmer
“With pork exports being volatile due to world economic conditions, what countries may have market share improvement, and what impact may this have on domestic consumer pricing?”
Bryan Humphreys, National Pork Producers Council CEO
“This industry is not for the faint of heart or the weak of mind. We face challenges that would rival any, and all, industries. So, we have to ask ourselves, how do we maintain our freedom to operate in an environment that seeks to restrict how producers run their businesses?”
Angie Johnson, Oklahoma Pork Council president and owner of Ran-Mar Farms
"As a community bank president and also the one who keeps the books for my family’s sow farm, I think the most important question the pork industry needs to ask in 2023 is, how do I mitigate financial risks? On our farm, we are focused on controlling expenses, and we're aware of the rising insurance costs in addition to increasing diesel and propane prices. Plus, we want to retain our employees and have been working diligently to ensure we are offering competitive wages and benefits."
Joe Kerns, Partners for Production Agriculture president
“Our long-term goals and directives should be the driving factor. We are fortunate to have two industry groups in the form of National Pork Board and National Pork Producers Council to represent our interests and aid in providing vision. The transition of traditional pork production facilities to the next generation will be difficult, in my opinion, in an inflationary environment characterized by higher land values (as a derivative higher grain prices). It will be far too attractive to derive our income from the land-based production and lose focus on livestock production. Our aging ownership would rather not spend winters in Iowa or Minnesota; we may become a victim of our own financial success.”
Megan Niederwerder, DVM, Swine Health Information Center associate director
“Has my swine operation done everything we can to prevent and prepare for the next emerging disease? What is one additional biosecurity step or protocol that I can add to our current day-to-day operations to prevent and protect our swine herd from infectious disease? In a perfect world, each of us would be 100% compliant on 100% of biosecurity protocols 100% of the time. Understanding that we are not perfect, we must look at biosecurity as a layered approach with many lines of defense and protection. If the first line of defense fails, additional biosecurity steps are in place to prevent the introduction and spread of swine diseases. If all swine production sites add one additional biosecurity step or protocol in 2023, the entire U.S. swine industry would be better protected from disease. The good news is that biosecurity is not pathogen specific, it works broadly to reduce endemic disease pressure and decrease risk of foreign animal disease incursion.”
Lee Schulz, Iowa State University economist
“Peter Drucker is often described as the founder of modern management. One of his principles says, ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.’ Are you collecting the right information and is it in the form you need to make decisions? Measuring and recording input-output relationships that help drive profit is key, but doing so takes time and money. However, generating and interpreting those data enables you to make the best management decisions possible.”
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