Posted July 6, 2010
According to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture's Hogs and Pigs Report , the March to May 2010 pig crop, at 28.2 million head, was down 3 percent from 2009.
Sows farrowing during the second quarter totaled 2.87 million head, down 5 percent from 2009. Pork producers intend to have 2.89 million sows farrow during the June to August 2010 quarter, down 2 percent from actual farrowings during the same period in 2009 and down 6 percent from 2008. Intended farrowings for September to November 2010, at 2.90 million sows, are down 1 percent from 2009 and down 4 percent from 2008.
Even though pork producers are enjoying a return to profitability, the industry has shown few signs of expansion so far. According to the Hogs and Pigs Report, which showed a drop in breeding herd numbers, North Carolina led the decline, followed by Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa.
"North Carolina's pork industry saw such enormous growth in the early 1990s, but many of the hog buildings constructed in the late 1980s and early 1990s are 20-plus years old," said Dr. Chris Hurt, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. Hurt participated in the Pork Checkoff's news media conference call about the report. "There's a question of whether that capacity will or will not come back into production."
Expansion in breeding herds is not expected until early 2011. Operating loans remain the biggest limitation to the pork industry at this point, said John Nalivka, president of Sterling Marketing in Vale, Ore., who also participated in the Checkoff's news media conference call. Although profits should be strong for producers in 2010, bankers are looking for producers' balance sheets to improve before financing expansions, Hurt added.
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