Purdue ag economist Chris Hurt says while export demand will continue, the marketing margin benefit may not last, and pork profitability will be challenged to remain in the black over the next 12 months. With high prices for corn and soybean meal, profitability will be challenged in the coming months. Hurt says prices should be strong through August, based on the futures market, but may drop into the fall period. Hurt: Pork Margins Stay in the Black Thursday, May 24, 2007 There has been...

Rabobank International predicts it will become increasingly challenging for the Canadian Pork industry to maintain its export markets but there are still opportunities. A combination of factors, including the increasing value of the Canadian dollar and rising feed grain costs, have made it increasingly difficult for Canadian pork exporters to compete on the international market. Rabobank International executive director food and agribusiness research Fiona Boal predicts a slight reduction...

So what s a hog farmer to do now that corn has doubled in price? Corn farmers are buying condos in Sarasota, but hog farmers are pondering anything but the bacon business. After Mom scraped the supper dishes each night, I had to carry the big, heavy bucket of slop out to the hog pen and pour it in their trough. For the reader who is not abreast of swine nutrition, our hogs ate more than slop-bucket stew. When you mix potato peels, rotten tomatoes, burnt beans, moldy biscuits, clabber milk,...

The 19th annual event will be held June 7-9 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and will feature more than 1,000 swine industry exhibits, numerous educational seminars, several informational centers, a farm toy show and sale, breed shows and sales, lunch at the Big Grill on Thursday and Friday, World Pork Open Golf Tournament and World Pork Open Sporting Clay Tournament. The 19th annual event will be held June 7-9 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and will feature more than 1,000 swine industry...

Those lawmakers and the Iowa-based company that makes Blue Bunny ice cream are at the center of a dispute over whether corporate dairy processors should be allowed to buy milk under contracts that would pay farmers less than the minimum prices set by the federal milk marketing system. Those lawmakers and the Iowa-based company that makes Blue Bunny ice cream are at the center of a dispute over whether corporate dairy processors should be allowed to buy milk under contracts that would pay...

They have another name, a more truthful name - factory farms, although they have nothing to do with farming and lots to do with manufacturing. They've reduced animal husbandry to an industrial process, right down to knowing exactly how long an animal gets to live (used to be, chickens had exactly 60 days of life, according to an old boss who worked in the business perhaps, through the marvels of efficiency, they've even managed to knock that down a few days since) During the course of the...