Canada and Circovirus to Blame for State's Failing Pork Market

Larry Sitzman, executive director of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, says that these issues, coupled with higher feed costs, is causing financial hardship that will spell possible disaster for the industry.

Speaking in the Independent he said that his organisation had contacted Nebraska's congressional delegation concerning these issues. The situation is seriously threatening the state's pig industry.

Corn prices are up to $5 per bushel and soyabeans are at $12 per bushel, add to this to the increasing competition for grain supplies from the ethanol generation business, and grain prices are likely to rise even more rapidly, he explained.

"We can no longer sit and wait to see how high grain prices raise or how many producers leave without standing up and speaking out about the unintended consequences currently present in the unlevel playing field of today's agriculture states," he said.

Sitzman says that the circovirus vaccination policies have proved successful and have allowed the pork industry to market additional animals. At the same time an estimated 8 million hogs from Canadian herds are coming into the United States, leading to a massive oversupply of slaughter pigs.

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