swinecast

In Kansas City for the Pork Industry Forum (PIF), the annual joint meeting of the National Pork Producers Council and the National Pork Board. From this meeting you’ll be hearing presentations and interviews at SwineCast.com.


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Winter has for many years meant Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) breaks. This year at several midwestern conferences there are efforts to use the reduction in swine numbers as a base to work a PRRS eradication effort into place. Empty houses simplify depop-repop programs.


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As we wrap up production on several of the presentations made to Minnesota and Iowa pork producers during the state meetings, we can share some upbeat conversations with producers looking ahead to profit potential in the futures markets.

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Producer interest in technology and risk management was high at the Minnesota Pork Congress. While exhibitors felt the turnout was down slightly, general attitudes were positive following months of unprofitability. Steve Meyer noted profitable hedging opportunities are now available and suggested growers lock in those positive margins when they’re available.


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Two major state swine conferences coming up in the next couple of weeks and SwineCast is joining a premier list of program sponsors to bring you the presentations, conversations, and analysis.

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We’re pumped to share presentations from the recent Swine Forecast 2010 virtual conference this week in your email update. This program brings together speakers and groups of swine producers around the U.S. and Canada to share concerns and questions in a timely and forthright fashion. You’ll get the skinny from bankers on access to capital, market updates from Dr. Steve Meyer and a look behind the curtain in the packer/retail area of the industry.

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There has been much discussion focused on PRRS eradication at recent swine health meetings. Ideally, the goal should be to eliminate this fierce killer of unborn pigs from the U.S. entirely. This week, two programs will be looking at what it might take to accomplish this goal.

I’ll be in Chicago for the Boehringer Ingelheim PRRS Symposium which precedes the International PRRS Symposium as part of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases. These high-level, international gatherings bring the best and brightest to bear on the PRRS issue. We’ll have interviews and presentations available for you on the discussion next week.

Also, the presentations from Swine Forecast 2010 go online at SwineCast.com this coming Dec 9. Great overviews of several segments affecting swine production. If you missed the live webinar, you don’t want to miss this replay.

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The Wall Street Journal highlighted the news that Coharie Hog Farms Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection November 6, 2009, blaming swine flu for its collapse into bankruptcy. According to the article, Coharie ultimately filed for bankruptcy in order to liquidate its livestock and other assets. Coharie, based in Clinton, N.C., is the largest independent pork supplier to Smithfield Foods Co. and was ranked as the 22nd largest pork producer in the country by Successful Farming magazine.

Not good news for the industry, but to paraphrase an economist, "on the other hand…"

The calamity, as the North American swine industry undergoes a historic retrenchment, must give way to transition to what the industry will become. Accordingly, SwineCast continues to bring you insight, ideas, and possible solution paths to management / industry issues that we will face as we continue in pork production.

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Swine Forecast 2010 mixes new media, the internet, and in person conversations to bring the swine community together around issues and the economy. Ned Arthur, host of SwineCast.com, shares how Swine Foreast 2010 is coming together.


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