It’s a nerve-wracking time to be a hog farmer according to Dan Erickson with the Knox County Pork Producers.
COVID-19 caught producers off guard and the uncertainty of not knowing when it’s going to end, has him calling it the toughest time to be a farmer that he can remember.
Meat prices are sky-high even though hog prices are low because of shutdowns and slowdowns at the nation’s food processing plants, including Smithfield Foods in Monmouth.
Erickson says this slowdown has caused processors to cut production in half.
He tells WGIL some farmers have turned to sell individual pigs when they can, and some producers in desperation have at times turned to euthanasia to slow the flow of hogs to processors.
There’s also the fact that the restaurant industry has been hampered by forced shutdowns.
“The processors are set up where a certain portion of their production is to go to restaurants and the other part is for retail and the packaging is completely different. One is completely in bulk, and the other is individual. They didn’t really have the ability to increase their individual packing that the grocery stores would want,” Erickson says.
He adds that depressed corn and soybean prices are making a perfect storm for area farmers.
He says the global oil price decline has wounded corn prices that are used in producing ethanol.
Erickson says “mental health on the farm is working towards a crisis point.”
He adds, “when you see your business crumbling it takes an emotional toll.”
He thinks it will be a long extended process to get everything back up to full speed.
But Erickson’s grateful that Monmouth’s Smithfield Plant started operations again Saturday, thanking those workers that are on the front line of America’s food supply.
