The USDA Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report will be released at 2 pm this afternoon. Everyone is looking for a continued decrease in the US breeding herd and smaller numbers in all weight categories in the kept for market inventory. … Continue reading
Two weeks ago I spent 2 days in northeast Nebraska making site visits and doing producer meetings. My visit began the day after the ‘big storm’ and snow drifts were up to the eaves of the buildings on the 2 … Continue reading
On Monday of this week I received an email from an 11 year old niece. In it she asked for my support of her efforts to help the less fortunate in the world. Included in the email was a link … Continue reading
Winter has arrived in southern Minnesota, and with the coming of winter the realization that propane expenses will be increasing. While every production facility tries to keep the facility set point as low as possible (approaching the lower critical temperature), … Continue reading
As frequent readers of the blog are aware, I have an interest in the structure of the pig industry world wide. Such things as what countries are major producers of pork, trends in their production numbers, etc. The US is … Continue reading
For the past 10 days I’ve been looking at temperatures and associated controller settings from data loggers that were placed in producer facilities in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio in preparation for a series of ventilation workshops next week. We’ve done … Continue reading
It’s 63 F degrees outside this afternoon and I think every combine in the state of Minnesota is being used to harvest corn and soybeans. What a difference in attitude Indian Summer brings, especially when it arrives this late in … Continue reading
I spent 4 days this week in 2 2500 sow breed-to-wean units ear tagging 5 day old pigs on their birth litters as part of an upcoming research project. I don’t normally spend much time in sow units, other than … Continue reading
The long and dreary harvest season, when combined with the continued lack of optimism for next summers hog market has many of the readers of this blog concerned about their future in agriculture. I thought I use this week’s blog … Continue reading
It’s Monday afternoon and I’ve delayed writing this weekend’s blog due to a hectic schedule of telephone calls on Friday. A majority of the calls were related to the many foaming issues many producers in the upper Midwest are reporting … Continue reading