It’s Friday before New Year’s and as I work in my office, snow is falling. Winter has been late in arriving in Minnesota. How late – yesterday I saw a producer installing plastic drainage tile lines at the Iowa-Minnesota border. … Continue reading
The spot market for weaned pigs has been at $60/pig for the past 2 weeks, a price pig sellers haven’t seen since last February and early March. This suggests a lot of optimism by producers for the late spring and … Continue reading
Last week the average barrow and gilt slaughter weight in the Iowa and Southern Minnesota market region was 276.2 lb, the heaviest on record. Sales weights are higher for 2 reasons. The first is full slaughter schedules at all of … Continue reading
This week has meant a lot of hospital time for me. Our daughter has been hospitalized since Tuesday with a high fever of unknown origin. Yesterday she began responding to generalized treatment (IV antibiotic) so some relief, but still concern … Continue reading
I spent much of this week with clients reviewing winter ventilation details and evaluating temperature logs from recorders placed in barns earlier this month. In every instance, I found mistakes in controller settings that cost producers a lot of money. … Continue reading
This week I was reviewing DDGS pricing and nutrient assays from a number of ethanol plants in southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. It was interesting to note the wide variation in grain pricing for December delivery to the various plants. … Continue reading
Today USDA and Statistics Canada released their joint report on the combined hogs and pigs inventory of the 2 countries. This is important since our industries are so closely linked. Not only do we have similar genetics, but Canadian producers … Continue reading
You can’t pick up a magazine associated with the pork industry without reading an optimistic story or column about the potential for profits in the coming 12 months. This optimism is now in the weaned pig market. In the past … Continue reading
have felt obliged to tell you that you were dreaming and/or crazy. This week we’re killing over 420,000 pigs per day and receiving that price. If you bought corn on the $2 drop in price in September, suddenly pork production … Continue reading
In last weeks blog I wrote about the changing economics of ddgs inclusion in swine diets. Corn is now under $6/bu just about everywhere in the upper Midwest, while ddgs prices remain around $180+/ton. Adding complexity to the diet formulation … Continue reading