York Taking Steps to Reduce Pork Growth
Published: Friday, May 29, 2020
The current pandemic has slammed much of agriculture. One of the sectors hit hardest is pork and recently two well-known northern Indiana pork producers and industry leaders agreed to share their thoughts on the current situation, both individually, and with some industry-wide perspectives.
Mark York is a former president of Indiana Pork and the current president of Wabash County Farm Bureau. He operates four quad buildings in northern Wabash County, capable of housing a total of about 17,000 head of hogs, which turn over twice annually, for a total of 34,000 hogs produced per year.
York said he's a first-generation farmer, and chose to go into contract pig finishing, working with Dykhuis Farms of Holland, Mich., because he wanted to mitigate his risk. He said thanks to some steps taken, he hasn't had any hogs back up yet, but that it's just a matter of time.
"We're about two weeks away before we start to market our current round of pigs, but it's going to hit us soon," he said. "When the Tyson processing plant in Logansport reopened recently, it was only at one-third capacity, which means that two thirds of the hogs that are normally processed there are backing up on hog farms. If you're a dairy producer, you can open a valve and dump milk, which is bad enough, but we can't do that. We are definitely in survival mode."
In a move that in any other times would be considered unimaginable, York has been taking steps to actually slow his pigs' rate of gain. Measures like turning the heat in the building up from the normal 62 to 80 degrees. And tightening the feeders down to slow feed consumption.
"It's pretty uncomfortable in there, but it's do-able," he said. "Hopefully these steps will slow things down enough to buy us another couple weeks."
York said the pandemic hadn't impacted his profitability yet, but that it could come to that. As a contract grower, the integrator (Dykhuis) supplies the pigs, with the grower being essentially paid for labor and management. If, as a result of current conditions, market-ready or overweight pigs drop significantly below profitability, or in a worst-case scenario, would have to be euthanized, York said there's a clause in his contract regarding "acts of God," which he thinks would likely include a pandemic.
"At some point, something's going to have to happen. Even though we do our best to produce the best pigs we possibly can, the reality is that if the integrator can't turn a profit, then neither can the growers," he said. "Through this crisis we're learning that our food system is more fragile than we ever realized."
York said that current conditions had also affected the way pigs are sold. Normally, producers have two to three weeks lead time to know when they need to load their pigs. But now, it's day by day.
"Our labor structure isn't set up to be able to round up workers to be able to load pigs at a moment's notice," he said. "But that's clearly what we're going to be charged to do."
York also fears the increased risk and lower profitability happening in pork production and agriculture could have some long-term effects.
"I have some grave concerns about what increased risk in the ag sector could do to interest rates, which makes it tougher for us to make a profit," he said. "I especially have a concern for young farmers, and the next generation of farmers, most of whom wouldn't have the financial reserves to ride out a situation like this."
But even with the difficulties, York is thankful for the things that are going right.
"We've been going to work every single day, caring for our animals at all times, and paying our bills," he said. "And we've been doing it without any government payments so far. We just want to make an honest living, and not have to be subsidized."
Long-term, York hopes that as a result of the current situation some of the product revenue in the pork industry can find its way into a better return for the farmer.
"In France, they spend 33 percent of their disposable income for food, while in the U.S. it's only 8 percent," he said. "I don't have any illusions it's going to get to that here, but if everyone could grill a few extra pork chops, it would sure help."
Rebecca Schroeder is the president of Whiteshire Hamroc in Albion, an innovative swine genetics company that produces elite breeding stock for producers domestically and internationally, as well as other specialty markets. They also produce market hogs. She said that while everyone in the livestock sector has been fearing the possibility of African swine fever or other foreign animal diseases, she believes the current pandemic may actually be worse.
"We've built this pork production system where we have to move pigs every week. A year ago, among an interstate a gathering of animal groups and the Indiana Board of Animal Health, we'd decided that if there were a foreign animal disease, at least we could keep a reasonable flow of animals into the processing plants," she said. "No one could have imagined this, but the coronavirus has been almost the opposite of that. It's been more widespread, and has become as big or bigger problem than a foreign animal disease likely would have been."
Schroeder said that for all the efficiencies of our modern system, the current crisis has exposed some flaws.
"We've built this system where we raise pigs in one place, then finish them in another, on really big, efficient farms, and then have about a dozen huge packing plants around the country that are also really big and efficient, and that makes for an affordable and safe food supply. But I think this has been a big "aha," that we haven't built enough resilience into the system," she said.
She said that the crisis had also brought some other problems to light, including labor shortages for both pork producers and packing plants. She said the Smithfield plant in South Dakota has workers who speak 30 different languages, which is a nightmare for training and management. As a result of this and other problems exposed by the pandemic, Schroeder believes some changes are inevitable.
"I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think some things are going to have to change," she said. "Possibly going back to some of the way things used to be—maybe smaller, yet efficient farrow-to-finish farms, more small, regional packing facilities—something needs to happen to make our system more diverse."
Amidst all this, she said life was also becoming more challenging for the producers.
"It's becoming much harder all the time for the big guys in the industry, but especially for the little guys, who are still trying to run the family farm and raise hogs," she said.
Schroeder said that Whiteshire Hamroc had been very fortunate in that their contract was with Routh Packing in Sandusky, Ohio, and so far they'd been able to keep marketings current without having to resort to growth restrictions or euthanasia. She also said that for her personally, her faith had been a tremendous help.
"I have a strong faith in a Creator that's bigger than all this," she said. "I've leaned pretty heavily on that the past couple of years."
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