As the swine industry adapts and moves forward from a crushing 2020, Farm Journal’s PORK asked five pig farmers to share how the pandemic has impacted their operation’s future plans and to weigh in on the biggest concerns and opportunities they see ahead. We also asked them to share how the pandemic impacted them personally. Here’s what they had to say.
Amanda Adam
JWV Pork, Washington, Iowa
Q. What’s your biggest concern about the pork market in the second half of 2021?
A. Biosecurity. We have excellent exports currently. With China’s recent emerging cases of African swine fever (ASF), there is a great opportunity to be the leading world supplier of pork. In order to capture this opportunity, we have to maintain the health of our herds and keep ASF and other foreign animal diseases out. Additionally, we have to continue to support our friends at the National Pork Board and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) in their work to promote pork and combat misinformation. Bills like Proposition 12 could have major market impacts and we have to continue to use sound science to form our policy.
Q. What is one thing your operation has changed because of the pandemic?
A. One of my main roles at JWV Pork is safety training, event planning and company communications. For the past several years, we have made an effort to have frequent face-to-face trainings to improve communication and build relationships. In 2020, our first priority became to keep everyone as separated as possible to keep operations going. That said, we have had to get creative in how we communicate – we have done a lot of work to improve our digital communications and we have worked hard to provide nearly all information in both English and Spanish – sometimes in both written form and through videos. In April, we hosted our first-ever virtual safety awareness week which involved daily safety video clips and we even held a drive-thru appreciation dinner for our employees. After all of the “thou shall nots” we faced in 2020, we are focusing on what is possible in 2021 and learning and adapting as we go.
Q. Where do you see the biggest opportunities in the pork industry as you look into the future?
A. There is a lot to be said about the advances that technology can bring to our industry but there’s also a lot of value and purpose in developing on-the-job problem solving and critical thinking skills. Technology shouldn’t eliminate our desire to work towards that end.
Q. What is the best thing that resulted from the pandemic for you personally?
A. I learned that serving others can cure a lot of things. I also learned that God’s mercy and goodness is abundant and that He can pour out blessings even amidst a global pandemic.
Thomas Craig
The Maschhoffs-Midwest Region, Hinton, Oklahoma
Q. What’s your biggest concern about the pork market in the second half of 2021?
A. There are several concerns with the pork industry as we head into the latter half of 2021. Volatility in pork markets, high feed costs, access to foreign markets, disease risks and staffing shortages at the processing plants and farms will continue to create significant uncertainty. Domestic and global demand continue to contribute to rising costs to feed our herds, which continue as a challenge. Hopefully a strong crop this year will help relieve some of the pressure on feed costs. Additionally, the industry seems to still be overbuilt for U.S. demand. Ensuring that we are still able to gain access to foreign markets will be an essential part to ensure that pork prices remain competitive at a level to balance with the elevated feed costs. Foreign animal diseases (FADs), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) continue to impact the industry and put significant pressure on production goals and overall profitability. Continued focus on biosecurity remains a tremendous risk to producers. Finally, as we saw with COVID, plant shutdowns can create catastrophic impacts to producers, as well as significant impact on consumer access. So any resurgence of COVID or any new infectious diseases continues to be a risk to our industry as it is currently structured.
Q. What is one thing your operation has changed because of the pandemic?
A. Hiring and employee relations has really changed because of the pandemic. Due to government aid programs, workers who are afraid to return to the work force and tremendous competition from other employers, it has become very difficult to recruit, retain and develop quality employees. We have put a tremendous amount of focus on our employees, and we developed an employee engagement committee to help drive what is important to our team. We have also invested significant time on training and development to ensure our employees are knowledgeable and highly competent in their area of the business to ensure they have confidence in what they do every day. We also try to put a strong focus on a positive culture and developing a safe environment in the workplace where employees feel comfortable to share their ideas and know they will be heard. We also have taken a greater focus on ensuring that we have additional resources on hand to ensure employees have PPE and the proper tools to do the job. We have encouraged the farms to ensure they have an appropriate supply of products on hand in case of shipping or supply issues. As well as ensuring we are maintaining a small number of essential parts on hand, to ensure that systems that impact ventilation, animal care, feed or water are on hand to ensure timely repairs or access.
Q. Where do you see the biggest opportunities in the pork industry as you look into the future?
A. The No. 1 opportunity is ensuring our industry looks for additional market access and retains market share in current global marketplaces for pork. With significant portions of current production already being exported, any loss of access to these markets will flood the U.S. market and sink pork prices, which could be catastrophic with current feed and labor costs. FAD and trade limitations (tariffs) could also prove to be significant risk points. Ensuring organizations like NPPC can continue to be our voice and effectively communicate this message to our government leaders and regulatory agencies to ensure our concerns are prioritized to protect our industry is essential. We also have a significant opportunity to work at addressing labor issues on farm. To remain competitive and profitable, automation and technology will continue to be a huge opportunity to help increase competitiveness and reliability of the industry. We need to look for competitive and creative ways to reduce labor needs on farm and find innovative automated solutions to help us get the job done. There is a tremendous opportunity within the industry to develop cost-effective solutions for producers to automate many processes on farm. Along with embracing more technology, we need to look for creative ways to attract, hire and retain good people both domestically and internationally to fill those roles that cannot be automated. There will always be tasks on farm that will require good animal husbandry skills and a human eye.
Q. What is the best thing that resulted from the pandemic for you personally?
A. The best thing that came out of the pandemic for me personally was a greater focus on quality family time. The pandemic made a huge impact on what we do for pleasure, how we spend our free time and our children’s activities. With so many things that we had previously spent time on, no longer an option; it allowed for some creative opportunities to spend time with family playing new (or revisiting classics) games, cooking, baking, watching movies, camping, fishing and other family activities on weekends and evenings. It has put a greater focus on family time and gave us a chance to make our home as much a place of relaxation and entertainment as possible. As the world is beginning to open up, we have found that we take greater appreciation in the opportunities to get out in the world and do some of the things we used to love, but we also still find tremendous pleasure in our time at home any many of our new activities we picked up during the last 15 months.
Adam Krause
Supreme Pork nursery grower, Clear Lake, South Dakota
Q. What’s your biggest concern about the pork market in the second half of 2021?
A. My biggest concern is feed costs. Pork prices are at an all-time high, but that only means something if you keep your input costs in check.
Q. What is one thing your operation has changed because of the pandemic?
A. Communication with markets and packers has always been important, but the plant closures really put a spotlight on that aspect. Keeping good relationships with one or multiple packers could prove to be helpful.
Q. Where do you see the biggest opportunities in the pork industry as you look into the future?
A. I see producer-owned packing plants and niche markets being a great opportunity for many pig farmers. Value-added agriculture has always been a great option, but differentiation in product and quality might present more opportunities for producers in the future.
Q. What is the best thing that resulted from the pandemic for you personally?
A. It’s hard to imagine a positive in all this, but communication within my community is has increased a lot. No matter if people are curious about getting a pig from us at a local locker, talking about the limited selection for meat in the grocery store, or inquiring about a story they saw on the news, it got more people curious and interested about the pork industry and the food supply as a whole. I once heard a quote of “no publicity is bad publicity.” While I don’t completely agree with this statement, I can still recognize and appreciate the questions and concerns brought to me by consumers, and in effect, I think they have a greater appreciation for what we do in return.
Rachelle Tucker
Mountain View Pork, Turlock, California
Q. What’s your biggest concern about the pork market in the second half of 2021?
A. My biggest concern about the pork market in the second half of 2021 would be price. Many producers have had a hard time the past two years. Pork prices have finally gone up, which is great, however I am worried again about increasing sow numbers and trade.
Q. What is one thing your operation has changed because of the pandemic?
A. We had to change genetics due to customer needs/wants, especially the color of the animal. Our customers have become even more specific on weight and breed.
Q. Where do you see the biggest opportunities in the pork industry as you look into the future?
A. This past year consumers stayed home and cooked more. They utilized pork more due to the lower price of the proteins. Ground pork is a great example of what consumers have discovered and was found as a great alternative option to ground beef. Consumers have also started to buy direct from the producer. Going into the future there are so many opportunities especially with niche markets and marketing directly to customers.
Q. What is the best thing that resulted from the pandemic for you personally?
A. The best thing that came from the pandemic would be spending even more quality time with our family. My husband Scott and I are both pork producers and proud parents to Bailey June, 5; Walter, 2; and Macie Ann, 1. Our lives are so busy, but family has always been No.1. Because of the pandemic, our kids activities/school were cancelled. We spent most of our time at home on the farm. Lots of visits to the farrowing houses and rides around the almond orchard. Our kids really didn’t know any different and enjoy farm life and being together. It was nice to stop and really look at what’s important to us.
Curt Zehr
Zehr Farms LLC, Washington, Illinois
Q. What’s your biggest concern about the pork market in the second half of 2021?
A. My biggest concerns for pork market in the second half 2021 are some type of FAD outbreak that would shut off our exports. We are exporting such a significant portion of our production that a disruption like this would have a devastating impact on prices and we would run out of cold storage so fast we could face the prospect of euthanizing animals again. I am also concerned about the outcome of the California Proposition 12 and the negative ripple effect this could have on domestic consumption and price of pork.
Q. What is one thing your operation has changed because of the pandemic?
A. We have had to think about and schedule custom hog sales and harvest way farther out in the future than we ever have before.
Q. Where do you see the biggest opportunities in the pork industry as you look into the future?
A. I think one of the biggest opportunities for the pork industry in the future is the increased use and acceptance of ground pork by consumers during the pandemic.
Q. What is the best thing that resulted from the pandemic for you personally?
A. One positive that has come for us from the pandemic is the increased interest in direct farm to consumer purchases. We have seen tremendous growth in this segment of our business and hopefully can keep a good percentage of these first-time customers after they have experienced our high-quality pork.
We will be uniting together June 7-13 for PORK Week across all of our Farm Journal platforms to elevate the important role the pork industry plays in feeding the world. Share your stories and post photos on social media using #PORKWeek21 to help us honor the pork industry. From “AgDay TV” to “AgriTalk” to “U.S. Farm Report” to PorkBusiness.com and everything in between, tune in and join us as we acknowledge the most noble profession there is: feeding people.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Celebrate #PORKWeek with Farm Journal’s PORK
Behind the Scenes with 5 State Pork Executives
Is This Year’s PRRS Better or Worse?
Modern Mythbuster: Eric Stonestreet Sets Out to Bust Pig Farming Myths
