pjms

MF, I think Grimes and Plain hit the nail on the head when they said:
"As has been stated several times this year, our problem in the hog industry is not demand relative to the past but high costs of production because of ethanol. However, the only way to solve the problem is to reduce production because feed costs are going to stay high relative to history."
Corn ethanol has screwed the livestock sector, and we must reduce our supplies to force prices up to the consumer. It will be a slow, painful process. Maybe the livestock industry can buy a few politicians and get the mandates and subsidies stopped, but most of the livestock guys I know want nothing to do with the government. Most of the corn farmers know how to farm the government as well as any welfare queen. There are lots of things lining up against pork producers. I do not see a bright future.

feelnrite

Lots of truth in what you just stated. You should see how the row croppers here are living and what they are doing. They have the mentality here lately that they are God and can do whatever whenever.

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this sure sounds like blame to me.....if the demand was still there relative to the past then the higher cost of production could be met because the demand would be there and would consume it

does ethanol get subsidies......yes they do......did corn farmers specifically go out and make this their number one issue.....no I don't feel they did......I think they made decades of investment that often failed and then they suddenly found themselves in the cross hairs (in a good way) of the dumbasses that mandated and then vilified MTBE.....ethanol was there.....it was the ONLY thing that was there......the clean air mandates (that have failed) were not going to be reformed...there are no other magic oxygenates out there on the market

ethanol then found themselves being used as a pawn by enviro-leftist idiots wanting to blame Bush and high oil for ruining the earth......they did what I would do and shrugged their shoulders and rolled with it.....then they found themselves as a TARGET by commi-globalist that feel the USA owes the third world cheap food  and the ability to over populate desert hell holes and then demand more help from us

corn farmers shrugged their shoulders......said this is what happens when you ride the wave of stupidity.....many took a BIG hit on lost sales, lost investments, companies going under and burning them......and they rode it out 

now they seem to have found their footing

pork on the other hand went and followed the EXACT same pattern as cattle and poultry.....they moved to standardize (commoditize)  their product to the lowest common detonator.....they allowed the packing to consolidate.....they took the ability to add value or differentiate most any part of their product right out of their own hands.......they moved to a system that relies on the lowest cost producer getting bigger and the others falling by the wayside.....then they just thought the cheap feed would flow on forever or that others would not jump in thinking they could do it bigger and cheaper

and I will ask again.......who will buy more US pork.......A-rabs rich on oil money......or US workers making a product, adding value to it, and selling it here in the USA......AS A REPLACEMENT FOR A PRODUCT THAT ALLOWS MONEY TO FLOW DIRECTLY OFF SHORE.......to people that DON'T EAT PORK 

the pork industry needs to look at where they messed up....taking pigs out of marginal lands out rutting around and eating things off the ground and sticking them in confined quarters where they require more higher cost feed......taking any variety out of their product......allowing themselves to lose any control over where the product is sold and finished or how it is marketed

if feed was still cheap hog producers would have just dug themselves a bigger hole.....deny it all you wish....it is true

if I was a hog producer I would get together with a big group of them and I would list out ALL inputs and cost associated with pig birth to pig on the grocery shelf 

I would then identify which of those cost are in the top 5 as a % of the total cost of making a pig to putting pig parts on the store counter.....I would then develop a concerted effort to try and lower each of those cost by some meaningful % 

 as an example.....does it still make sense in times of 3+ dollar diesel (or the potential for it) to ship hogs hundreds of miles to large packers that control the market.....this transport may have made sense when diesel was .97 a gallon.....but now it might show as more efficient to cut the packing house down to quarters in size and locate them closer to areas of production.....I am sure the packers have no interest in this......but they might if a few farmers started their own butchering sheds

as for cost of feed.....I would look at the waste stream......even my big city schools in Houston (in the way back) separated the food trash from everything else in the lunch room....because the food went to hog farmers.....just like the old timer in Vegas on dirty jobs (damn that guy had a WORN OUT operation....but I bet his feed cost were lower)

I would also look at mass production of earth worms, grubs, and insects......I would investigate getting pigs back into fenced in bottom lands that are used for timber production.....where they can eat acorns and whatever else they can rut up and then feed as needed....then market that product differently than "the other white meat" 

I would investigate other forms of AG waste streams.....like the bad carrots friends tell me are dumped in HUGE mounds outside Bakersfield, Ca in such quantity that half the town stinks...I would look at algae, sea kelp and other things like this

I would move to press the obongo administration for ADDITIONAL tax credits for animal operations to move towards greener energy for their facilities......for one reason only.....to have a SET cost of production for one more LARGE cost of input energy.....good luck with that one though because you are going to be a TARGET under the obongo administration....so before you mock the free range pigs in the woods......you better wake up and realize it may SOON be FORCED on you

I am FAR from a hog farming expert.....but so far the efforts I have seen from hog farmers only revolve around marketing their product and mainly marketing it as an alternative to some other protein.....I have seen a lot less effort going into controlling input cost as a group...I am sure every individual farmer tries to control his cost......but if that single farmer is watching dollars per hog flow out of his operation because of trucking cost.....there is next to nothing he can do about it.....same with feed......and really even the same with energy

if as a group research dollars went into a program where hog producers set up a reprocessing plant next to some other form of AGs waste stream and converted that waste into a feed product...I think that would go further towards saving cost that farmers on an individual basis....or algae/kelp/insect/grub production....same with energy cost programs

just telling yourself all we need is 2 dollar corn is just a joke and it will only lead you right back to the same place time and again......attack ALL issues of your industry as a group......you may well find that you save a great deal more and make a great deal more if you look at something besides the cost of corn and make a long tern concerted group effort to address some of those other cost and issues