Those of you in other areas of the
country: who has room to buy and process hogs?? Every one of these hogs
that we can find shackle space for is one less that has to be wasted, and can
instead go to keeping our communities fed. If your facility-alone or
together with your near neighbors- have the ability to take on some of these
hogs, you will be able to purchase them for next-to-nothing, and I believe that
Pork Producers will even help to arrange transportation. If you are
interested, please reach out to Drew Mogler, Public Policy Director for Iowa
Pork Producers, at (515) 225-7675, or dmogler@iowapork.org.
My thanks to all of you for considering
this-
Dr. Polking
Bureau Chief
Meat and Poultry Inspection Bureau
Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land
Stewardship
I don’t comment on here often, but why would producers be looking at “having to euthanize market-weight animals due to lack of processing”, rather then giving animals away live to allow individuals to home process.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate this may be an odd perspective, but a life is a life. Killing “euthanizing” because it’s easier or cheaper then finding other distribution channels doesn’t seem like a proper or ethical consideration.
These are clearly unique times across the country with major socio economic impacts. If I can process a couple animals at home and give them to family and friends no longer employed, wouldn’t that be for the greater good. This is not suggested as long term business strategy, but as a relief valve option for producers with excess supply and consumers with decreased purchasing power.
I am in Kansas, If I can drive up to Iowa and pick up one or two alive, tell me who to call.
to clarify- many producers are *also* selling/giving away hogs to anyone willing to drive up and take one for home processing. It’s just that none of this is enough to make up for the loss of the large processors. Tyson Waterloo alone processed 20,000 head per *day*. There’s only 3 million people in Iowa.
ReplyDeleteFor you or anyone looking to buy hogs for their own processing, I believe many producers are starting to put up Facebook ads and the like.
I am ready to chime in. I think it is terribly sad that there are no places to go with livestock ready for slaughter, but the writing has been on the wall for many years with the loss of most of the smaller commercial plants in this country and moving to these huge corporate slaughter houses. For years, I have been trying to new smaller plants going, but the road blocks have been too great for most people to get through. In the long run, this needs to change. I don't know for sure how to do it, but I am still here willing to try and help.
ReplyDelete1) According to the Iowa Pork Producers Association, producers have not yet had to resort to euthanizing hogs. The current purchase price for Iowa hogs is $50-$120 each. If the situation deteriorates, availability will go up and price will go down. This information is limited by which producers are in direct communication with the Iowa Pork Producers Association. In addition, I was told that the State and Federal government are NOT currently helping/involved with either a) the logistics of resource redistribution, or b) funding to support that redistribution.
ReplyDelete2) Iowa Pork Producers is building a spreadsheet to connect producers with potential harvesters. Questions asked include: a) how much are you willing to pay for the hogs, b) do you have your own means of transporting the hogs, c) how many hogs can you take, and is this one time or recurring, d) are the hogs being requested by/collected for a state, tribe, non-profit, small business, or individual
3) The USDA APHIS National Incident Coordination Center is relying on each State Veterinarian to coordinate assistance to producers. If my understanding is correct, this "assistance" refers to euthanasia and not to offset losses associated with selling/transporting hogs to interested processors.
4) Weaned piglets are available for $0-$20.