Surprises can be good or bad, says David Newman, senior vice president of market growth for the National Pork Board. 

“The current economic situation of the U.S. pork industry is certainly in the latter category,” he says.

The industry is well off the peaks for 2022 in both market channels, explains Glynn Tonsor, professor in ag economics at Kansas State University. 

“A lot of the challenges domestically that pork demand is facing have to do with macroeconomic forces that honestly are beyond the realm of influence for those of us in the pork industry,” Tonsor says. “The net effect of historically high inflation and wages that increase, but didn’t increase at the same rate, means a lot of people are tightening their financial budgets.”

According to Iowa State University’s Model for Profitability, farrow-to-finish operators in Iowa aren’t just losing money, forecasted 2023 margins look to be record-low, says Lee Schulz, an Extension livestock economist at Iowa State University who manages the Model for Profitability.

“This is the worst annual year pork producers will ever have,” Schulz says. “We always talked about 1998 as the worst year ever, but 2023, collectively, will be worse than in 1998.”

In response, the National Pork Board has reallocated funds to support market growth initiatives and further sharpen its focus on market growth — particularly enhancing long-term demand.

It’s Time for Something New

“We have to win more households, more consumers and more eating occasions – we need a penetration strategy that helps us grow the base of consumer,” explains Kiersten Hafer, vice president strategy and domestic market development for the National Pork Board. “We need a buy rate strategy – we need them buying more often and growing the share. We need a consumption strategy that grows their use and reminds them there is more to pork and a particular cut than they realize and have been raised with.”

In short, it’s not just about selling more pork. It’s about creating long-term demand and connection to pork that will sustain the pork industry and create a more stable base of sales, Hafer says. 

“If you think about that, there’s really a spectrum. On the left is shopper marketing, and on the right is consumer marketing. Shopper marketing is about influencing and impacting the consumer at the time of purchase. It’s the opportunity to drive immediate sales, it’s the opportunity to go after share and buy rate and drive volume,” she says.

The National Pork Board is working to bring pork into the forefront to talk about easy meals tonight or cross-selling within the portfolio of getting people from processed pork over to the fresh pork case, she adds. 

To the far left of the spectrum, brand-driven programs are working to change perceptions of consumers in market through a longer-term proposition and plan. We are thinking about both long-term and short-term and balancing of efforts to ensure they are growing simultaneously, she says. 

Perhaps most importantly, all of National Pork Board’s messaging in retail will lead with taste and flavor. 

“That’s our opportunity to disrupt everything else out there, to break through in a busy time of year, and help consumers realize pork could bring them something they may have been missing, or might be craving,” she says.

Listen to the Consumer

Some of the ways National Pork Board plans to meet the consumer where they are include:

• Tie cuts and recipes to cooking methods (appliances) they are using.
•  Give them confidence they can cook pork and it will be a great meal and eating experience.
• Help them cook with confidence and make their meal. 

Gene Noem, Iowa pork producer and past National Pork Board president, says, “A person in the food industry told me one time that the biggest mistake you can make in food is to imagine that people like the same thing that you do. You’ve got to listen to what people are saying. And you’ve got to listen to why they’re making the choices that they are.”

Pulling the Curtain Back on Pig Farming

Phillip Hord, a fifth-generation farmer born and raised on his family’s farm in Bucyrus, Ohio, wasn’t always sure if farming was his true calling. However, it didn’t take too many years being away from the commercial swine operation in north-central Ohio for Hord to determine he wanted to follow in his family’s footsteps. 

What brought him back to the farm? Hord credits his time away with giving him the clarity of what tremendous opportunities truly exist in today’s pork industry. Whether it is making incremental improvements in on-farm live production statistics, working on integrating new ways to improve sustainability, or focusing on how to improve consumer pork demand, Hord says this was where he was meant to be.

When he first came back to his family’s operation, he focused heavily on the production side of the business. That is until he carved out his own specialty. One of his specialties became finding ways to serve up more demand for pork.  

“In an industry where few producers are vertically integrated, it’s extremely important we know where our products are going and what that product looks like,” he adds.  

Connecting with Food Service, Retailers and Consumers 

Hord says anything he does on the farm has to provide value through the entire pork chain. Over time, he says that has meant going straight to the next link in the chain: retailers and food service.  

“Talking directly to retailers and food service individuals who are out there making decisions about where our product goes is very important because without them and their work, our product may not get on shelves or served in restaurants, which would make our industry unviable. There would be no need for our pig farm or any others,” Hord explains.  

Whether it’s having conversations with retailers or bringing groups out to their farm, Hord is a true believer in pulling back the curtain 
on their operation. 

“Our perspective is, ‘why not be connected?’ and, ‘why not be a resource to answer questions while giving opportunities for others to visit the farm?’” Hord says. 

Hord’s passion is evident about growing demand for U.S. pork whether that’s through their farm’s efforts in creating connections or sharing the farm’s story.

“The people in retail and food service we talk to are genuinely curious to find that a lot of our farms, we believe, are going to be carbon neutral, if not carbon negative. That is an awesome story to be able to tell,” Hord says.  

Not only can he tell them about their farm’s journey to carbon neutrality, but he can also put numbers behind that story. Success in this area has come through big, long-term commitments, as well as small everyday changes around the farm.  

“When it comes to reducing our carbon footprint, we’re implementing practical changes such as adopting LED lighting on our farms, and in the birthing areas, converting away from heat lamps. “We’re using baby pig heat mats instead of a heat bulb because they use less electricity and actually provide a better environment for small pigs,” Hord adds.  

While progress and innovation are essential for the Hords, they aren’t doing a complete overhaul in everything they have been doing. In some cases, the family isn’t making any changes. However, they are carefully quantifying the farm’s impact by capturing data and communicating what it means to the farm’s overall sustainability picture.  

For many consumers today, Hord says simply going back to the basics of telling them how pig farmers are the original recyclers and re-users of nutrients is a critical step to getting them to view farmers as true champions of sustainability.

“To tell how we’re using manure from the animals in the fields, which then helps grow the grain to feed back to the animals in the same area, is a really cool thing to talk about as a recurring cycle,” he says. “A lot of people aren’t aware of how that process works until you tell them and it’s up to us to do that.” 

Hogs, Hope and Trust: How One Pig Farmer is Reaching Consumers

“With hogs and hope” is how first-generation Ohio farmer Jessica Stevens built her pork operation from scratch in 2013. 

Carroll Creek Farms, located in Waynesville, Ohio, is not your typical hog farm, she explains. Her niche operation offers 11 acres for her pigs to roam, in addition to a barn they can go into whenever they want. She’s focused on raising primarily Berkshire and Duroc swine. 

Although Stevens is passionate about how her operation functions, she’s the first to point out that she doesn’t believe all pigs need to be raised one way or another.  

“With our location between Cincinnati and Dayton, I knew if I was going to be an operational farm for more than just my generation, I needed to have it work with the ecosystem here, which is ever urbanizing,” Stevens says. 

A Unique Way to Sell Pork 

It’s not just how her pigs are raised that some call unique, but also how the meat is sold. Stevens decided to go direct to consumer, while also finding a way to be part of the community. She says she wanted her farm to be viewed as a partner. 

“There’s a variety of different ways that people can buy from Carroll Creek,” Stevens says. “The first is the ‘Meat Retreat.’ We have our home farm open to the public every day, seven days a week, where we just trust people. They come down our driveway, and we have the honor system where they can check themselves out and grab whatever meats they need for the day, and then take off.”

Carroll Creek also sells products at a few farmers markets and even online. No matter where the pork products are being sold, she wanted to make sure the products they offered consumers were done so in a convenient way. 

As an ag lender and mom of three, Stevens says her time to cook is limited. That’s why she sees ground pork as a huge opportunity for growth. 

“I think moving into that space where it’s more ready-to-eat and quick and easy is going to provide a world of opportunity for the future,” she says. 

From chorizo to other ground pork specialties, Stevens sees ground pork as a convenient option for shoppers, and one that will help boost demand for pork. Building that confidence among consumers could live on for generations, even on their own farms. 

“When we’re out there doing the hard work and building this business from scratch, it’s really not as much about our generation, but setting up the next generation, and ensuring that they have a viable operation to come back to,” Stevens says.