Hog Industry In Iowa Logs 26th Month of Profit

US - With 26 consecutive months of profits, Iowa hog producers may be nearing a record for good times. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's quarterly hog and pigs report released Friday showed that despite the second-longest run of consecutive months of profit since records have been kept, hog producers' expansion plans are still subdued.

That makes prospects for continued profits rosy until later this year, hog industry analysts said.

John Lawrence, an Iowa State University economist, said that if hog producers resist overexpansion during the rest of this year and if corn prices don't rise too high, profits in the hog industry should continue until October.

That's when Iowa's hog producers would tie the record for the longest streak of profitable hog production, which ran from December 1976 through August 1979.

"We've had a disciplined industry," said Lawrence, who estimates monthly profits and losses for Iowa's hog producers.

The Agriculture Department report showed that the number of hogs and pigs on U.S. farms on March 1 increased 1percent from a year ago, to 60.1million head. Iowa, the leading hog-production state, had a 1percent increase in its hog inventory from 2005, to 16.3million head.

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Source: Des Moines Register

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