Columbus, OH - Hog farmer Bryan Black's recent dinner of marinated pork chops wasn't just tasty. It was a way of boosting his own industry.
Hog prices hit a 26-year low this week, with hogs selling at $21 to $23 per hundredweight nationally and lower in some regions Wednesday. Analysts look to 1972 to find lower prices, said Glenn Grimes, a retired University of Missouri professor and national expert on hog farming.
Black, who raises 6,000 hogs a year on 500 acres about 20 miles southeast of Columbus, said low prices are hitting most producers hard.
“We're tightening our belts,” he said. “Some smaller producers will take the opportunity to get out of the business.”
Some parts of northwest Ohio have seen prices as low as $17 per hundredweight, said Robyn Callicoat of the Columbus-based Ohio Pork Producers Council.
Cost cycles are common in the hog business, but the swings have gotten worse recently, said Steve Meyer, director of economics for the National Pork Producers Council in suburban Des Moines, Iowa.
“Producers expected a down cycle, they did not expect one this severe,” Meyer said.
There's a glut of pork, beef and poultry on U.S. markets now, he said.
In addition, slaughterhouses are at capacity, meaning there's limited competition among meatpackers for products. The hog industry is slaughtering 2.06 million hogs a week now, close to the record of 2.08 million, Meyer said.
Exports to Asian countries are up over last year but could probably be stronger if the ongoing financial crisis hadn't hurt those countries' purchasing power, Meyer added.
The pork council is running a national ad campaign called “The Other White Sale” to kick start consumption of pork, dubbed “the other white meat” in similar campaigns.
Hog farmers in Iowa, the country's largest hog state with 20,000 producers, aren't panicking but want to know how long the low prices will last, said Rich Degner of the Iowa Pork Council.
Producers in North Carolina, the country's second-largest hog state, will likely cut costs by moving to specialized production, said Walter Cherry of the North Carolina Pork Council.
That means one farmer might raise piglets, another young pigs, a third older pigs ready for market.
The country's top producers of hogs are, in order: Iowa, North Carolina, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Ohio.
Randy Brown, who has 8,000 hogs on 1,000 acres 50 miles north of Columbus, said he is optimistic that pork supply and demand will even out. How optimistic?
He had clam chowder for lunch Wednesday.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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Phone: 631-757-4010
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