Farmer Forum: Pork Producer Weighs in on Feed Costs and Profitability
There’s no doubt about it, the feed situation has changed drastically in the last couple of months, said Illinois hog farmer Chad Leman on AgriTalk’s Farmer Forum.
“Just think about this, a pig will eat about nine bushel of corn from wean to finish and about 125 pounds of soybean meal per head. For every dollar that the corn price goes up, that increases your cost per head $9. When you look at your target weights that you want to ship at, it's no longer near as efficient to put that last 10 to 15 pounds on a pig as it was back in July or August,” Leman said.
One might think that would mean producers will start marketing at lighter kill weights, but AgriTalk host Chip Flory said once producers figure out how to put the pounds on a pig, it’s hard to start taking them off.
“We’re feeding new corn, stuff that's been harvested in the last couple months,” Leman added. “Pigs always start eating better when they start getting new corn in the diets. And cooler weather obviously helps pigs grow, so weights are taking up.”
Hog movement continues to be a concern as some packers face issues getting pigs harvested.
“Tyson's plant at Columbus Junction went down about two weeks ago when they had a fire in their main control room,” Leman said.
Nearly 50% of his pigs are marketed at that plant, he said. He’s had to send a lot of his pigs out to the Tyson plant in Logansport, Ind., and because of that, he’s starting to think about holding diets again.
“We don't need to rehash the carnage of this spring, but capacity is something we watch closely,” said Nick Giordano, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) vice president and council for global government affairs.
NPPC has been working to make sure plant workers get priority treatment for CVOID-19 vaccines.
“So far we're on target. We just had the CDC Advisory Committee vote, I think there was only one vote the other way, it was almost unanimous that these folks be included in 1B,” Giordano said.
Ultimately this decision is up to each state, he said. But he thinks it bodes pretty well.
“A year ago right now, we were looking forward to 2020 as a year of recovery for the hog industry. And then, of course, disruption all over the place,” Flory said. “Do you kind of feel like we're back where we were a year ago?”
Leman’s hopeful 2021 can be a better year for the pork industry. “If you look at futures prices out beyond April, and into June, July, August, there's some profitability there as long as we don't have another black swan.”
More from Farm Journal's PORK:
Don’t Pay For Energy Lost During Digestion, Swine Nutritionists Say
3 Ways to Lessen the Impact of High Feed Prices in Pork Production
