Hog prices keep falling

Oct 23, 2023

It has been a tough year for hog producers. Calculations by economists at Iowa State University indicate losses are likely to average more than $20 per head marketed this year making it the worst financial year since 2009.

The low hog prices that are driving these losses are more the result of declining demand rather than too many hogs. Yes, hog slaughter in 2023 is expected to be 1.2% higher than last year, but it is lower than in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Packer demand for hogs has been lower than a year earlier for 22 of the last 24 months. At the retail level consumer pork demand has been lower than the year before for each of the last 13 months. Export demand for pork has been down 22 of the last 23 months.

Click here to see more...

Video: Making budget friendly pig feed on a small livestock farm

I am going to show you how we save our farm money by making our own pig feed. It's the same process as making our cattle feed just with a slight adjustment to our grinder/ mixer that makes all the difference. We buy all the feed stuff required to make the total mix feed. Run each through the mixer and at the end of the process we have a product that can be consumed by our pigs.

I am the 2nd generation to live on this property after my parents purchased it in 1978. As a child my father hobby farmed pigs for a couple years and ran a vegetable garden. But we were not a farm by any stretch of the imagination. There were however many family dairy farms surrounding us. So naturally I was hooked with farming since I saw my first tractor. As time went on, I worked for a couple of these farms and that only fueled my love of agriculture. In 2019 I was able to move back home as my parents were ready to downsize and I was ready to try my hand at farming. Stacy and logan share the same love of farming as I do. Stacy growing up on her family's dairy farm and logans exposure of farming/tractors at a very young age. We all share this same passion to grow a quality/healthy product to share with our community. Join us on this journey and see where the farm life takes us.