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2012 Pork Edition

By DARCYDOUGHERTY

[email protected]

DES MOINES — The priceof corn remains an unnervingwildcard for pork producers,who face serious questions abouttheir economic futures.

“Unfortunately, I don’t expectany hogs to go to market at aprofit for the next sevenmonths,” said Dr. Ron Plain, aprofessor of agricultural eco-nomics at the University of Mis-souri, who participated in a re-cent Pork Checkoff-sponsoredteleconference.

Many economists see nothingbut red ink for the pork industryfor the remainder of 2012 andinto 2013, due to high cornprices and other factors. Theirforecasts were supported by thelatest U.S. Department of Agri-culture’s Hogs and Pigs Report,

which was released in late Sep-tember.

The numbers came in close toeconomists’ pre-report expecta-

tions, said Steve Meyer, presi-dent of Iowa-based ParagonEconomics. The U.S. inventoryof all hogs and pigs on Sept. 1,

totaled 67.5 million head, upslightly from the previous yearat that time and up 3 percentfrom June 1.

The breeding inventory, at5.79 million head, was downslightly from last year and down1 percent from the previousquarter. This decline will likelycontinue into the next quarter,said Altin Kalo, chief economistwith the Steiner ConsultingGroup in Manchester, N.H., whonoted that retaining gilts is afairly high-risk proposition rightnow.

“The size of the breeding herdwas one of the main numbers Iwas looking at,” Kalo said,“since it will influence the num-ber of pigs coming into the mar-ket.

“We’ve made the u-turn fromMay and June, when producerswere still looking at expansion.”

Those were the days when theUSDA was still projecting 166-bushel-per-acre corn, Plainadded.

Outlook: Red ink may linger into 2013

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

A UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI ag economist said he does not foresee any pigs marketed at aprofitable level for the next seen months, during an oct. 12 Pork check-off webinar.

See PROFITS, Page 13


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2012 Pork Edition

BY KARENSCHWALLER

[email protected]

SPENCER — As Ameri-ca becomes increasingly ur-ban, parents and childrenare becoming a generationor more re-movedfrom thefamilyfarm.

This con-cernsSpencerresidentGreg Lear,and itsparked anidea for aproject thathe co-ledknown asthe“Friends ofClay Coun-ty Youth.”

Thisfirst-timeeffort is de-signed to of-fer Spencer-area “townkids” a chance to experi-ence raising pigs, whileteaching them about thepork industry.

“Kids need to knowwhere their food comesfrom,” Lear said, “and thatpork does not come fromthe grocery store.”

Lear serves as president-elect of the Iowa Pork Pro-ducers Board, is a memberof the Clay County Fairswine committee, andleader of the Clay CountyCasters 4-H Club.

“People in general aredisconnected from knowingwhere their food comes

from,” he said, “and thiswas a (hands-on) way thatwe could educate a few kidsabout it.”

He teamed up with friendand fellow 4-H father JoelStave, who is also active inthe state pork industry. Learsaid coming up with theidea was the easy part. Therest took some leg work.

Together they roundedup five county 4-H mem-bers and four local FFA stu-dents to participate, none ofwhom had raised a pig be-fore.

They needed an expensecash pool to start with, sothey approached the ClayCounty Pork Producers fora $5,000 loan. That loanwill be repaid to the CCPPonce the youths receive themoney for their pigs, whichthey all showed at the ClayCounty Fair.

Farmers Trust and Sav-ings Bank, in Spencer, pro-vided funding over thatamount, to be repaid atprime rate.

The youths each plunkeddown $20 per pig that theywould raise. All of the mon-ey went into a single pool.

“We had the kids con-tribute a little bit of theirown money so they wouldhave some ‘skin’ in it,”Lear said.

Once the funding was se-cured, the group purchased34 feeder pigs from amongabout 1,200 pigs from TimBierman, of Larrabee.Lear’s son, Zack Lear,walked through all of thosepigs to choose the ones hethought would be good forthe project. The pigs wereweighed and tagged thenext day and bought for$70 each. They were thenplaced at the Blair Ravelingfarm near Linn Grove, a 25-mile drive from Spencer.

Now that the group hadthe livestock and the facilityin which to raise them, thework for the group as awhole began. The studentsperformed daily chores,washed their pigs and over-saw their swine projects.

The pigs were weighedevery other week so the stu-dents could monitor theirpigs’ growth and rate of

City youths raising pigs?

-Contributed photo

NATHAN PULLEN, a clay county 4-H’er, works withhis pig just before showing it at the 2012 clay coun-ty Fair.

Project gave

‘town kids’

real world

ag experience

See PROJECT, Page 5

Greg Lear

Joel Stave

gain from start to finish.Regardless of how often

they went out to work withthe pigs, the group metevery other Sunday for ed-ucation about pigs and thepork industry overall.

Eight of the nine partici-pants were first-time swineexhibitors at the ClayCounty Fair.

The pigs weighed be-tween 219 and 337 poundsby fair time. Lear said. Halfof the youths’ pigs weighedbetween 290 and 310pounds, right at the desiredhog buyer target area of300 pounds.

“We had the top fivegaining pigs in the countyfair,” Lear said.

Aside from the pigs do-ing well at the fair, eachstudent gained farm experi-ence and learned about thepork industry as they madethe trek out to the farm andworked with their live-stock, Lear said. The kidsall had derby pigs for thefair and watched the ultra-sound process, scanningback fat and the loin eye.

Anna Bates, 17, a seniorat Spencer High School,was one of the participants.She has been friends withLear and his son for manyyears, and because of it shefancies herself to be “otsuch a city kid.”

“Pigs have a sweettooth,” she said of some-thing she learned. “I wasshocked at the number ofpounds they gained perday.”

She said one of her pigsgained 2.58 pounds perday, and was the biggestgainer in the group. Her pigalso received fourth placeat the fair for overallpounds of lean gain.

“The building didn’tsmell that bad,” Bates said.“We had fans blowing allthe time, and they had feedand water all the time.They were pretty spoiled.”

Jace Wiemers, 11, a

fifth-grader at Sacred HeartSchool, in Spencer, said hegrew up watching hisbrother and Zach Lear’sson working with pigs, andsaid it always looked likefun.

“I learned how muchpigs really grow,” he said.“When you get them

they’re not even 100pounds, and three monthslater they weigh 300pounds. I also learned howmuch they cost.

“I didn’t know they wereso expensive, even thoughfor us they only cost $20each.”

Wiemers said his lessons

learned included biosecuri-ty also meant not wearingthe same boots into differ-ent barns, and that 25 milesis a long way to drive to dochores on a regular basis.

Madison Stave, 11, afifth-grader at Lincoln Ele-mentary School, inSpencer, said she was eagerto be part of the project be-cause she wanted to seehow pigs grew.

“It was more fun than Ithought,” Stave said. “Ididn’t know we would getto go out and see themevery weekend.”

She said there was onepig fact that she clearly re-members — “The onlyplace pigs sweat is on theirnose.”

Taylor Wiemers, 15,said, “It was a positive ex-perience that taught me re-sponsibility. I learned a lotabout not only the animal,but about the people whoraise them for a living.”

Other facts that im-pressed the youths duringthe summer project includ-ed:

∫ Pigs drink one gallonof water per day for everyhundred pounds that theyweigh.

∫ A hog’s diet contentconsists of 16 percent pro-tein.

∫ Pigs eat eight poundsof feed per day.

∫ Hogs don’t like step-ping into shadows and theyhave no depth perception.

Lear said this projectbrought nine new ex-hibitors to the Clay CountyFair swine show in Sep-tember, in a time whenswine project numbersthere were declining.

But more importantly, itgave some youths a chanceto do something that is re-served mostly for farmkids.

“I grew up in Spencer,”Stave said, “and the guy Ishared a locker with inschool lived on a farm.

That was my introductioninto the pork industry.

“He would talk about itin school and I’d go homewith him sometimes andwork with their cattle,sheep and hogs. Those peo-ple and other farmershelped get me started as acity kid. Kids need to knowabout the (ag) industry.”

Stave said the projectwas meant to give childrenan appreciation for the menand women who raise hogsfor a living, in a time whenmarket volatility can hap-pen at any time.

“We need to make animpression on the girls whoare 12 and 13 years oldright now,” Stave said,“and help educate themabout where their foodcomes from because theywill most likely be the onesbuying the household foodwhen they are grown.

“Iowa is a hog state andan agricultural state. Wehave to find ways to getkids involved in this part ofagriculture.”

Lear said the FFA’ershave not yet received theirchecks for their pigs sold atthe fair, so they haven’tgotten into the net incomepart of the project yet.

He said the hog marketfell from the first couple ofweeks in August until fairtime, and that the membersmay learn about market

volatility in this first yearof the project.

Since the initial start-upmoney needs to be repaidto the CCPP, and since theydid borrow a little cashfrom the bank, Lear saidthe youths may need to dipinto their premium moneyto help repay the loans.But, he said, that’s also partof raising hogs.

“We hoped the marketwould be better for the kidsso they’d have a little cashin their pockets,” Lear said,“but we’ll see this projectall the way through untilthe end.

“It will either be a groupgain or a group loss, sinceall the money was pooled.”

Lear said there weremany individuals whohelped with this project in-cluding local farmers con-tributing their time and theuse of their trucks and trail-ers to transport hogs, to aSutherland-based feedcompany who mixed anddelivered the feed, to aWinnipeg, Canada-basedcompany,who heard aboutthe project and shippednine dry feeders to Spencerfor the pigs to use at thefair, to those helping themat the Clay County Fair,and to the parents whohelped make it important totheir children.

In the end, Lear said, itall works together towardkeeping the pork industryalive.

“When we picked thepigs out,” Lear said, “therewere two kids in the projectwho had never seen abuilding full of 1,200 pigsweighing 50 to 60 poundsand in all colors.

“They had saucer eyes,and they had nothing to sayfor awhile. We are teachingthe next generation of con-sumers, not as much as thenext generation of porkproducers.

“You’ve got to educateboth.”


2012 Pork Edition

Project Continued from Page 4

-Contributed photo

JACE WIEMERS, a clay county 4-H’er, shows hispig to the judge at the clay county Fair. wiemersenjoyed the project so much that he feels like hewants to pursue a career in agriculture someday.

“There were twokids in the project

who had neverseen a building

full of 1,200 pigsweighing 50 to 60pounds and in all

colors.”—Greg Lear

Co-leader, Friends

of Clay County Youth


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2012 Pork Edition

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2012 Pork Edition

ogden couple

finds one can

attain bothBy KRISS [email protected]

OGDEN — A century-plus old farm from BooneCounty began with the helpof livestock, and raising an-imals remains a strong partof the farm today.

Just in a different way.Construction of a swine

wean-to-finish building wascompleted last summer onthe Eric and Emily Cros-man farm, in rural Ogden,and has been filled withpigs since June 15.

The Crosmans built a2,480-head building tohouse their operation where

they are currently custom-feeding for Cargill Pork.

Eric Crosman said theywill fill the building twiceannually, marketing nearly5,000 pigs.

The Crosmans had beenrenting hog barns at variouslocations over the past fiveyears and decided to keephogs on their family farm.

“We wanted to expandthe farm, and this was agood foundation to growfrom,” Crosman said.

The new expansion, theCrosmans hope, will helphis farm continue to growand exist if their sons,Brock,6, and Jakob, 2, de-cide to work into their fam-ily operation.

“This was a way to keepour family farm in the fam-ily,” said Emily Crosman.

In addition to their new

hog finishing building, thecouple farms with Eric’sparents, Dan and JeanineCrosman, and his brother,Paul Crosman, and raise asmall cow herd as well.

The Crosmans took ad-vantage of the opportunityto work closely with theCoalition to Support IowaFarmers.

Working with the coali-tion, Eric Crosman said, notonly helped him form agame plan to be able to talkopenly to his neighborsabout this plans, but to helpconvince his wife, as well.

“I was probably thetoughest sell,” she said.

Although she grew up inthe small Iowa communityof Jefferson, Emily Cros-man considers herself a

Profitability vs good neighboring

-Farm News photos by Kriss Nelson

ERIC CROSMAN checks on the pigs that have been in his family’s new hog barnsince June. the new building holds 2,480 pigs and will turn twice a year sendingclose to 5,000 pigs a year to market.See CROSMAN, Page 9

was 67.5 million head. This wasup slightly from Sept. 1, 2011,

and up 3 percent from the June 1report.


2012 Pork Edition

Hogs and pigs: breeding, market, total inventory

Selected states and U.S., Sept. 1, 2011-2012Numbers in 1,000 head

BREEDING MARKET TOTALState 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012Illinois 490 490 4,2100 4,160 4,700 4,650Iowa 1,020 1,000 19,080 19,600 20,010 20,600Minnesota 560 560 7,340 7,540 7,900 8,100Missouri 360 360 2,540 2,540 2,900 2,900Nebraska 380 380 2,870 2,770 3,250 3,150N. Carolina 850 870 8,350 8,330 9,200 9,200U.S. 5,806 5,788 61,428 61,684 67,234 67,472

Market hogs,pigs: Inventory by weight groupSelected states and U.S., Sept. 1, 2011-2012

Numbers in 1,000 head50-119 lbs 120-179 lbs 180 lbs & up

State 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012Illinois 1,310 1,220 770 750 740 820Iowa 6,200 6,280 4,610 4,7310 3,300 3,540Minnesota 2,290 2,290 1,480 1,600 1,030 1,150Missouri 615 625 475 390 430 440Nebraska 890 800 580 600 450 490N. Carlna 2,130 2,140 1,680 1,630 1,440 1,420U.S. 17,884 17,675 12,822 12,899 10,961 11,457

USDA: Iowa hog count up 2 percent; U.S. up 3 percentIOWAOn Sept. 1, there were 20.6

million hogs and pigs on Iowafarms, according the latest USDANational Agricultural StatisticsService Hogs and Pigs report. TheSept.1 inventory was up over 2percent from a year ago and be-came the highest inventory onrecord.

The June 2012 to August 2012pig crop was tallied at 5.07 mil-lion head.

A total of 485,000 sows far-rowed with an average litter sizeof 10.45 pigs per sow.

As of Sept. 1, producersplanned to farrow 480,000 headof sows and gilts in the Septemberto November quarter.

Farrowing intentions for theDecember 2012 to February2013 period were estimated at475,000 as of Sept. 1, 2012.

U.S.United States inventory of all

hogs and pigs on Sept. 1, 2012

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Breeding inventory, at 5.79million head, was down slightlyfrom last year, and down 1 percentfrom the previous quarter.

Market hog inventory, at 61.7million head, was up slightly fromlast year, and up 3 percent fromlast quarter.

The June to August pig crop, at29.3 million head, was downslightly from 2011.

Sows farrowing during this pe-riod totaled 2.89 million head,down 1 percent from 2011.

The sows farrowed during thisquarter represented 49 percent ofthe breeding herd.

The average pigs saved per litterwas a record high 10.13 for theJune to August period, comparedto 10.03 last year.

Pigs saved per litter by size ofoperation ranged from 7.60 foroperations with 1 to 99 hogs andpigs to 10.2 for operations withmore than 5,000 hogs and pigs.

Hog producers intend to have2.85 million sows farrow during

the September to November quar-ter, down 3 percent from the actu-al farrowings during the same pe-riod in 2011, and down 1 percentfrom 2010.

Intended farrowings for Decem-ber 2012 to February 2013, at2.82 million sows, are down 1percent from 2012 and down 1percent from 2011.

The total number of hogs undercontract owned by operations withover 5,000 head, but raised bycontractees, accounted for 47 per-cent of the total U.S. hog invento-ry, up from 46 percent last year.

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town girl and was con-cerned with the potentialsmell and problematic is-sue of flies that sometimesaccompany a swine facili-ty.

She also worried aboutthe opinions of their closeneighbors, so convincingthem he would be a goodneighbor with his new op-eration was a bit of chal-lenge.

CSIF, Eric Crosmansaid, gave them a gameplan on how to talk toneighbors, informing themwhat was going on andtheir plans for the opera-tion.

“He made a big effort totalk to neighbors,” EmilyCrosman said, “even onesthat winter out of state. Hetook the time to find how toget a hold of them and let

them know what was goingon.”

The Crosmans said theywere met with little nega-tivity, and they believe itwas their effort in keepingthe lines of communicationopen and using their neigh-bors’ feedback during theconstruction process thathelped to keep things mov-ing smoothly.

Some of the feedbackthat was implemented, EricCrosman said, was to pushthe building back from theroad further than what wasoriginally planned.

“I kept neighbors in-formed as to what was go-ing on,” he said. “I left thedoors open to them duringconstruction so they couldsee what was going on andI also took care of the roadsand other issues that came

up during construction“I didn’t want to disrupt

any of their lives.”The Crosmans’ new

swine facility featuresstate-of-the-art controlswhich make life for boththe pigs and operators asstress-free as possible.

Controls for temperatureof the barn and water, forinstance, can be managedfrom phone when they areaway from the barn.

The newer technologyhelps track important infor-mation to help keep thepigs even more comfort-able.

Comfortability in thenew facility, which alsokeeps the animals healthyand happy, is a bigger pendesign that allows them tomove around more andadds to the ease of sorting.

Crosman said he choresthe animals twice a day andalso takes that time to walkthe pens, checking on thepigs making sure things areOK.

Their advice to othersconsidering expandingtheir operations or startingfrom the beginning is touse the coalition and com-municating.

“Communication is thebiggest thing, and a lot ofplanning,” Eric Crosmansaid.

He said he took the time,in the very early stages, tovisualize and think every-thing through.

Even spending eveningswalking the gravel road infront of their home andimagine the way neighborswould see their place andconsider all sides and doing

what was right.Emily Crosman encour-

ages going through CSIF.“Use the coalition,” she

said. “They are right thereand with their help every-thing went so smoothly.”

The Crosmans havejoined other livestock andgrain producers, plus theIowa Farm Bureau Federa-tion to promote Iowa agri-culture and informing con-sumers how food is grownand raised in Iowa, by be-ing a part of the IowaFarmers Feed US sweep-stakes program.

This program invitesIowans to meet today’sfarmers, take video tours oftheir farms and register fora chance to win free gro-ceries for a year.

The Crosmans partici-pated in a video tour that

can be seen and people canregister for the year’sworth of free groceries atwww.FarmersFeedUS.org/ia.

“We want to help edu-cate people and raiseawareness of modern agri-culture and where our foodcomes from,” Eric Cros-man said. “We get to tellour story, and why we’redoing it.

“We’re not the bad guysout here. They’re calledcorporate/factory farms,but its families out hererunning them.

“It’s not all what every-body perceives it to be.”

Emily Crosman teachesspecial education at OgdenElementary School and Er-ic Crosman works as a me-chanic assistant at IowaState University.

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2012 Pork Edition

Crosman Continued from Page 7

AMES (IPPC) — Fol-lowing an initial project atthe Iowa State Universityswine breeding farm in1999, the university’sswine teaching farm startedcomposting mortalities inan effort to increase biose-curity practices.

Swine farms managerJay Lampe said the movewas positive.

“This process haschanged our managementstyle and lowered our biose-curity risks at the farm,while providing a sustain-able way of managing mor-talities,” he said. “Compost-ing has eliminated two po-tential sources of diseaseoutbreaks for our farms —rendering and fuel trucksare no longer entering our

property.“We are able to decrease

the number of outside vehi-cles entering the farmgrounds, and that helps uskeep our biosecurity at ahigh level.”

The size of and cost toconstruct a composting fa-cility varies according toavailable land, type of ma-terials and size of mortali-ties to be composted.

The swine teaching farmfacility is completely roofedwith eight bays, each ofwhich is approximately 10feet square with four-foot-high concrete walls.

This allows adequatespace for all carcass sizesfrom the farm to be incor-porated.

ISU agricultural and

biosystems engineeringprofessor Tom Glanvillesaid the correct process ofpreparing and using a mor-tality composting facility isvital to its success.

“Start by placing a 12-inch layer of dry cover ma-terial, like sawdust, woodshavings, or chopped cornstalk, in the bottom of acompost bin,” he said.

“Decaying carcasses willrelease excess moisture, sothis absorptive base layerplays an important role inpreventing release of excessliquid.”

Alternate layers of covermaterial with additionalcarcasses until the bin orbay is filled, Glanville said.



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2012 Pork Edition

Composting swine preserves

an operation’s biosecurity

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“The top layer should al-ways be cover material,” hesaid. “Realize that youmight not be able to fill anentire bin in a short periodof time depending on youroperation’s mortality ratesand size of the moralities.”

After a bin is filled, thecompost must undergo aprimary heating cycle of

60 to 90 days. This timeframe varies based on thesize of mortalities placed inthe bin.

After this initial heatingcycle, the partially com-posted carcasses are movedfrom the primary bin to asecondary bin.

“Moving the compostbreaks up the materials in

the pile, redistributes ex-cess moisture, and intro-duces a new oxygen sup-ply,” Glanville said. “Bythe end of a 60- to 90-daysecondary heating cyclewith additional decomposi-tion activity, even largecarcasses of breeding stockare normally reduced to afew large bones that are

free of soft tissues whichcause odors or attract in-sects and predators.”

The composting processcan continue during wintermonths, he said. The layoutof the composting facilityalso plays an importantrole.

By having bins share alarger amount of common

wall area, it cuts down onthe amount of bin wall ex-posed to the cold, reducingheat loss.

More information oncomposting equipment, fa-cilities, procedures, sizingand layout is available inthe ISU Extension publica-tion, Composting SwineMortalities in Iowa.”

At the ISU swine farm, anitrogen source, (mortali-ties or manure) and a car-bon source (typically cornstalks or woodchips) arethe primary materials usedin composting.

After the process is com-plete, the composted mate-rial is then usually appliedon cropland.


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2012 Pork Edition

Compost Continued from Page 10

By CLAYTON [email protected]

OSAGE — When Mattand Kelli Miller, of SugarCreek Farm, northwest ofOsage in Mitchell County,are told they are a smallproducer, they are liable tosmile and say, “We are avery small producer.”

They finish bottle calvesfor local markets and her-itage crossbred pigs for Ni-man Ranch. “We raise

(livestock) on organic prin-ciples,” Matt Miller said.

The Millers grew up onfarms near Osage. Millersaid, “I remember balinghay for her dad.”

However, both have ca-reers not directly associatedwith agricultural involve-ment. Matt Miller is a 26-year lineman for Osage Mu-nicipal Utilities, and KelliMiller works out of herhome as a software devel-oper, receiving her degreeafter the University ofNorthern Iowa in computerinformation systems.

Both have a deep love forfood production, and it istheir dedication to growingboth quality and taste thatkeeps them busy when notworking their day jobs.

After being dissatisfiedwith meat from othersources, Miller told hiswife, “We can do betterthan this.”

Starting with a bottle calfan uncle picked out for the

Millers’ daughter, Made-line, they have grown to “awhole bunch,” Matt Millersaid, of bottle calves fortheir three kids and neigh-bor.

The Millers started feed-ing Angus crossbred bottlecalves and feeding themout.

The Millers sold the beeflocally and expanded tocow-calf production with abull.

Kelli Miller became in-terested in a heritage breedof hog called Large Black.A grower of Large Blackswas located in Winona,Minn., and the Millersmade a trip there to pur-chase a boar.

When the grower learnedof the Miller’s small-scaleoperation, he gave them agilt to go with the boar.

Matt Miller said theLarge Black boar was huge— eventually weighing875 pounds — with a verygentle disposition.

The Millers said theLarge Black breed wasmore like hogs from thepast with high lard content.

With its fat content, MattMiller said, “It was by farthe best tasting pork I’vehad.”

The Millers said theirlocker hated processing theLarge Black because of thewaste.

Matt and Kelli Millerwere giving serious thoughtto setting up a business rais-ing and selling farm freshmeat and produce.

They attended a classconducted by Penny BrownHuber titled, “Grow YourOwn Small Market Farm,”around eight years ago. Theclass had its students write amission statement and busi-ness plan.

The Millers were told byHuber that raising bothmeat and produce for retailis too big of a job, and theyshould concentrate on one.They decided to emphasizemeat production and sales.

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2012 Pork Edition

Seeking tastier meat

-Farm News photos by Clayton Rye

MATT AND KELLI miller work to raise food naturallywith taste, using organic principles.

MATT MILLER prefers raising his hogs using traditional methods and heritagegenetics with hogs raised outside with room to roam and root.

See MILLERS, Page 14

small producers focus on local retail sales



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More cuts ahead?The market hog inven-

tory, at 61.7 million head,was up slightly from lastyear, and up 3 percentfrom last quarter. In addi-tion, average pigs savedper litter reached a recordhigh 10.13 for the June-August period, comparedto 10.03 last year.

Unfortunately, these re-cent productivity increasein pigs per litter makes itharder to reduce pork sup-plies.

“Whatever cuts you getin the number of sows far-rowing don’t equate to acut in pork supplies on themarket,” Plain said, whonoted that culling tends toremove the least produc-tive sows. “You have tocut fairly deep into thebreeding herd today tomake a reduction in themarket.”

The pork industry hasprobably not cut back farenough, said Dan Vaught,president of Vaught Fu-tures Insight in Altus,Ark., even though therehas been a tremendous in-crease in the number ofhogs going to market in

recent weeks due to higherfeed costs.

While carcass pricesbrought $90 per hundred-weight in early August,this plunged to $63 cwt bymid September.

“It’s obvious the indus-try has gone into contrac-tion mode, probably fasterthan a lot of people ex-pected,” Vaught said.“Yet, it’s still not terriblysurprising, given the bigsurge in corn prices.”

Grain price concernsHog slaughter levels

will likely continue to de-cline, compared to recentlevels, which should leadto significantly smallerpork supplies by thespring and summer of2013.

The high price of corn,however, will likely cur-tail many swine opera-tions’ growth, if notprompt some producers toexit the industry, Kalosaid. He expects the cornmarket to stay strong.

Using an Iowa-Min-nesota carcass price, Kalolooks for 2013 hog pricesin the first quarter to reach

$83 cwt, $97 cwt by thesecond quarter, $99 cwt inthe third quarter and $87cwt by the fourth quarter.

Plain is less optimistic,with his projections start-ing at $74 cwt in thefourth quarter of 2012,$79 cwt in the first quarterof 2013, $93 in the sec-ond and third quarters, fol-lowed by $84 cwt in thefourth quarter of 2013.

There’s also the seriousconcern about whether ad-equate supplies of feedgrains will be availablenext summer.

“The big question iswhether $7.50-per-bushelcorn is a bargain you needto jump on, or whethercorn prices might go backdown,” Plain said.

One thing is clear —pork exports will remainvital to U.S. producers inthe months ahead, saidKalo, who noted that morethan 20 percent of U.S.pork is sold to buyersaround the globe.

“These strong exportswill need to continue tohelp bring profitabilityback into the industry,” hesaid.

Profits Continued from Page 3

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2012 Pork Edition

As part of the class, aspeaker who had experi-ence in raising and sellingfor local retail told theclass, “If you think you aregoing to make money atthis, you’re not.” Her ad-vice was to “keep your dayjob.” said Matt Miller.

In the ensuing years, theMillers have learned thatthis indeed is not a money-making enterprise, butthey have also learnedthere are other benefitsthat offset the small in-come.

Matt and Kelli Millerare the parents of Made-line, 17, Olivia, 15, andRafe, 10.

The life lessons learnedwhen children are rearedaround livestock and un-derstand how food is

raised and how to takecare of the animals ispriceless., they said.

Similarly, the Millersknow they are providing aservice to their many cus-tomers who have becomefriends.

Sugar Creek Farm hasbeen state-inspected and islicensed to sell cuts ofmeat instead of by halvesor quarters that do notneed to be inspected. Theyuse lockers located innearby Osage, Riceville,Stacyville and Greene.

The primary sales arethrough farmers markets inMason City and Osage, aswell as people who drive totheir rural location.

During the winter, whenfarmers markets are notactive, the Millers will de-

liver items ordered bytheir customers to a pickup point in Mason City.

A Mason City restau-rant that specializes in lo-cally grown food is asteady customer for SugarCreek Farm’s meat.

Sugar Creek Farm ispart of the Niman Ranchorganization, providinganother outlet for theirhogs.

Matt Miller said his hog

herd is crossbred sows us-ing a Berkshire boar.

Kelli Miller’s computerbackground makes it easyfor Sugar Creek Farm tokeep a presence on the in-ternet where the farm has aweb log and is on Face-book.

It has proven to be aneffective way to pass in-formation on to customersand take orders.

Matt and Kelli Miller

would like to increasetheir business at SugarCreek Farm but, limitedby each of their own jobsand family activities, timeis in short supply.

An additional problemis that their small acreageis not able to grow enoughcorn for their livestock.Buying high-priced corn,hay and gasoline have cutinto their profits.

For the Millers, whilethe monetary rewards arenot great, the benefits ofseeing their children learnabout raising food whileproviding a service to theircustomers offsets thesmall income.

“When you don’t haveto make money at it, it’s alot more fun,” said MattMiller.

Millers Continued from Page 12

“When you don’t have to make moneyat it, it’s a lot more fun.”

—Matt MillerOsage-area local foods producer


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2012 Pork Edition

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2012 Pork Edition

Particle size reductions may help lower feed costs

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2012 Pork Edition

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2012 Pork Edition

Let’s Plan for Excellence.

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Tom Witt Contractor Newell, IA

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to 500 microns.Problems with ulcers do not seem to be

as much of an issue now, Stein said.He believes this is due to diets containing

more fiber than they used to because of theinclusion of DDGS. Inclusion of more fibersuch as DDGS or wheat middlings in the di-ets reduces the risk of pigs getting ulcers.

He said there are also producers who donot use DDGS and have reduced the parti-cle size of the grain without experiencingproblems with ulcers.

“With the increasing costs of feed ingre-dients, it is necessary to look at all opportu-nities for reduction in feed costs – and re-duction of the grain particle size is an easyway to start saving,” Stein said.

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Kent MowrerCSIF Field Specialist

Going It Alone Is Overrated{ }

www.supportfarmers.com

YOUR FARM.YOUR FAMILY.OUR FOCUS.

Finding the right location is critical when growing your livestock farm. But, just as important is talking with your neighbors about your project and plans for the future. The Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers (CSIF) can help, as Eric Crosman learned while he was planning a new hog barn on his Century Farm near Ogden.

“I called the Coalition when we wanted to add a hog barn,” says Eric. “CSIF’s Kent Mowrer

also helped my wife, Emily, and me with a plan to talk to our neighbors. It only takes one farmer not doing the right thing to have an impact on all of us. I didn’t want to be that farmer, so I called the Coalition.”

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