At Pork Expo last week I sat in on the annual user group presentation on cost of production comparisons compiled for clients of Latta, Harris, Hanon & Penningroth, a CPA firm headquartered in Tipton, Ia. John McNutt did most of … Continue reading
At the World Pork Expo this week the hot topic of conversation (other than corn condition ratings and pig price expectations) was the ongoing gestation housing debate. While many producers were outraged at the decision process of McDonald’s, Kroger, Safeway, … Continue reading
Next week is the World Pork Expo in Des Moines. I expect to visit with many of you at this event. I plan on attending on Wednesday and Thursday and already have a number of meetings scheduled. You can’t help … Continue reading
Last week I wrote about our aging production facilities. This past week I was at a production site that had generally excellent maintenance. The slats were 16 years old and showed only moderate erosion at the edges of the feed … Continue reading
In the past several weeks I’ve been in quite a few fully slatted finishing facilities that are showing their age. While some of them are 13+ years old, others are only 5-7 years old. I suspect there are a large … Continue reading
The World Pork Expo is in Des Moines on June 6-8. While it is the major equipment and allied industry show for US producers, it is growing in importance to the international production community. Each year sees growth in the … Continue reading
I’m getting quite a few requests for ventilation details on new double-wide tunnel wean-finish or grow-finish facilities. In addition, I’ve reviewed the ventilation system as installed at quite a few sites in recent weeks. Unfortunately, the many builders and facility … Continue reading
On Wednesday the joint US and Canadian quarterly hog inventory report was released by USDA and Statistics Canada. The April 1 Canadian pig inventory was estimated at 12,020,000 pigs with 1,312,000 kept for breeding and 10.708 million kept for market. … Continue reading
Many of us working in the swine industry are aware of the impact of corn prices on our feed costs in a general way. However, we don’t often think about the actual problems local feed mills face in keeping a … Continue reading
Most of us are aware in general terms how large the US pork industry is. In 2011 US packers slaughtered 109,967,000 pigs under federal inspection. This was up from 109,292,000 head in 2010. A couple of weeks ago I came … Continue reading