This week I’ve spent quite a bit of time in my office working on presentations for upcoming meetings. I’ve also been working on papers for proceedings of meetings to be held several months from now and digging into the research … Continue reading
As people involved in the business of pork production, we tend to think of our slaughter plants as the final destination for our production. In fact, the slaughter plants don’t view themselves as pork processors. Rather, they are increasing viewed … Continue reading
We’re far enough along with harvest that many producers have begun pumping manure pits. Yesterday I received a call regarding 30 pigs that died over the weekend during pumping and last night an email about rumors of increased pig deaths … Continue reading
While I missed writing a blog last week, I did have the chance to visit with many readers of this commentary at the Leman Swine Health Conference and Minnesota Nutrition Conference. Both conferences had excellent speakers/topics. In spite of the … Continue reading
At a meeting of the Minnesota Pork Board research committee yesterday, Dr John Goihl, a consulting swine nutritionist in Minnesota, put the problem of high feed grain prices and limited supplies in perspective. He said there are really two different … Continue reading
With the extremely large numbers of slaughter pigs coming to market in the past 3 weeks there has been a lot of commentary written on where these numbers of pigs are coming from. Are producers pulling pigs forward in an … Continue reading
Lots of discussion by analysts and producers on the sharp increase in slaughter numbers the past few weeks. Producers are telling me they are scheduling loads 2-3 weeks out right now. I think the biggest driver is the anticipated feed … Continue reading
I’m writing this blog from an auditorium in Salta, Argentina where Dr Larry Jacobson (extension ag engineer at the University of Minnesota) and I are doing presentations to swine producers and veterinarians from Argentina, Chile and other South American countries. … Continue reading
Earlier this week I had a chance to talk with a cull-market sow buyer. So far the consensus of the sow buyers appears to be 35-40,000 sows have been liquidated due to the drought and associated high feed prices. There … Continue reading
Yesterday I was involved with a nutritionist reviewing feed ingredient options for the coming year in swine diets. One of the more interesting items he put together for our discussion was review of how the price relationship among various diet … Continue reading