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 →