Good, Bad, and Downright Ugly

This year pork producers have seen some of the toughest market conditions in years. They’ve faced a mountain of challenges over the last several years, and are looking at facing more of the same in the coming months. With the drought causing rising feed prices pork producers are liquidating sows. That combination of record high input costs and contracting herd size could quite easily lead to record high losses for pork producers. In the fall of 1998 the pork industry lost roughly $45 a head when the industry went through a financial downturn. Some experts are predicting that pork producers could possibly lose $60 a head heading into the fourth quarter of 2012. This begs the question, can the pork industry ever manage to be profitable again? Pork producers are meeting these challenges head on. Many from around the country met earlier this month to draft a 2013 budget for the National Pork Board. Also, the NPB is reviewing efforts on how to build stronger relationships with the industry’s food channel partners. It’s agreed, there’s a lot of “red ink” ahead for pork producers, but most of them know it won’t last forever. In the livestock business you get used to taking the good with the bad, and sometimes even the downright ugly.