one more pasture hog producer in Indiana
Greg and Lei Gunthorp (hey4hogs@kuntrynet.com)
Wed, 26 Nov 97 09:30:51 PST
I just sold a guy 20 gilts to start a pasture hog operation last night. He spent about $3000 on
breeding stock including the boars. He spent a little bit of money on fence. He has to buy enough huts
for them to farrow in this coming spring. And the biggest thing is he should have no problem being able
to quit his factory job in about two years!!!
I really think the solution to the confined feeding situation is that we need more independant sustainable
producers. These big guys would go away if they thought there was a serious threat of enough true low
cost producers in the US. They aren't fooling me. They are after market control, just like happened in the
chicken industry. They are also laughing at regulations and proposed regulations. Yes that isn't a typo.
Get out in the country and see who the regulations are slowing down. Its the smaller family farms that have
to live in the communities that they raise hogs. The big guys are adding sows at about 20% per year. I think we
should give this more regulations theory some more thought. Any thoughts? I imagine I am opening a can
of worms here.
By the way, I am raising about a thousand pigs a year. All on pasture. Farrow to finish. I am not affected
by any of the regulations. I just know that somebody has done an awful good job of scaring the small hog
farmers. Both that you shouldn't raise hogs because they smell and that you always have to be cautious that
you won't be able to sell your pigs. Something needs to address these two issues, plus the issue of putting
decent information on raising hogs on pasture, in hoop houses, etc. This, is my opinion would help. Most farms
in my area were made sucessful with hogs or dairy cows. These weren't confinement animals. Its only since
our wonderful government has pushed buildings for so long that we started to see confinement operations
pop up. The only ones that last are the ones that paid for their buildings with the outside animals of previous
years. The big guys understand that raising hogs in confinement is a high volume low margin game. They have
the advantage. They don't have any advantage over me. They may some day if I can't sell my pigs. It doesn't
make a bit of difference if I am the lowest cost producer in the country if I can't sell my pigs.
We still need more independant producers. If a new regulation doesn't address that then it is just going to shift
the large hog producers to a different area of the country.
Best wishes,
Greg Gunthorp
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".