Pork producers are beginning to act nervous about profit prospects this fall. SEW prices continue to decline, both on the contract and spot market as the Chicago futures continue to gradually decline in value. This past week USDA reported SEW … Continue reading →

With both the USDA planting intentions report and the quarterly Hogs and Pigs report released today, an active day for those who follow markets and try and estimate impacts. The corn market responded to the report by ending limit up … Continue reading →

This past week I attended the Midwest Section of the American Society of Animal Sciences annual meeting in Des Moines. This meeting is the largest gathering of swine nutritionists in the country. For 2.5 days we heard presentations from a … Continue reading →

At the American Association of Swine Veterinarians meeting, Dr Tom Stein presented data on ‘normal’ pig performance based on the closeouts of production systems using the MetaFarms data system. This data represents groups of growing pigs that were closed out … Continue reading →

It’s Sunday morning as I write this weeks blog from a hotel room in Denver, CO. I at the American Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting. Next week is the Midwest Section of the American Society of Animal Scientists meeting … Continue reading →

This past week the Chinese government banned Chinese athletes preparing for the London Summer Olympics from eating meat. At first glance this appears to be negative publicity for animal protein producers around the world. However, if you dig deeper into … Continue reading →

In the past 2 weeks I’ve been involved in working with producers, veterinarians and allied industry on a number of filtered sow unit issues. In addition, I’ve spoken with a large number of people on the issue of filtered air … Continue reading →

I receive a daily ‘newsgram’ from the Food Marketing Institute which is the grocery store industry group. I started to receive it so I could see what the retailers are thinking about as they present our pork products to the … Continue reading →

Last February the spot market for SEW pigs hit $71 on the week ending February 4. This past week the spot market was at $69 as listed in the Friday USDA report. Forty pound feeder pigs are $77 on the … Continue reading →

The Minnesota Pork Congress was Wednesday and Thursday this past week and I had the opportunity to speak with many of the readers of this blog. A common theme in our conversations seemed to be speculation regarding who is expanding … Continue reading →