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'Horrible choices': Iowa livestock producers may have to euthanize pigs as packing plants struggle


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Damn. The rest of the story at the link.

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'Horrible choices': Iowa livestock producers may have to euthanize pigs as packing plants struggle

Iowa livestock producers face tumbling prices after hundreds of meatpacking workers have tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in Midwest processing plants significantly slowing production or closing.

The situation could turn tragic for pork producers, who face the possibility of euthanizing thousands of animals backed up on farms across the state.

"Producers face horrible choices," said Dermot Hayes, an Iowa State University agriculture economist.

Pork processing capacity has shrunk by about 25%, crushing hog prices, which have tumbled about 50% since January. That's especially troubling in Iowa, the nation's largest pork producer, with nearly 25 million pigs in confinements across the state.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Tuesday he's heard estimates that the country has about 100,000 pigs that should be slaughtered each day but aren't. "Apply that over 10 days, and with a million pigs, you’ve got a big problem," the Iowa Republican said in a call with reporters.

Cattle producers face big losses and tough choices, too, but have more flexibility to hold animals on their farms longer than pork producers do.

Farmers face widespread disruption from the pandemic.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2020/04/21/coronavirus-meatpacking-slowdown-force-iowa-pork-producers-euthanize-pigs-covid-19/5164368002/

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Anler said:

Too bad producers dont have like a farm or something the animals could just live on and stop breeding for maybe 3 months until demand rises... 

If you look further into the article some have a spot where they can put the hogs on a diet for a week or so and then comes the decision to kill the hogs or the piglets.

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4 minutes ago, Mileage Psycho said:

If you look further into the article some have a spot where they can put the hogs on a diet for a week or so and then comes the decision to kill the hogs or the piglets.

Because they dont want to pay to feed them? 

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2 minutes ago, Anler said:

Because they dont want to pay to feed them? 

Space becomes an issue if I understood what I read correctly:

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Here's the problem producers face: When pigs reach market weight, they're moved out of a confinement for slaughter, making way for new animals. But now, market-weight hogs remain as hundreds of piglets arrive.

Farmers can juggle both sets of pigs in barns for a while, including putting market-ready pigs on a diet to slow their weight gain, Meyer and others explained.

"You can multiple-stock barns (with piglets) to absorb the shock," Meyer said. "But when that runs out, you've got to destroy market hogs to create space — or you've got to destroy the pigs that are forcing them out.

"Neither of those are choices that anyone wants to make," he said.

The Iowa Pork Producers Association says some members are talking with veterinarians about euthanasia, but the group said it didn't believe producers had started destroying animals.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Mileage Psycho said:

Space becomes an issue if I understood what I read correctly:

 

Well thats what I am talking about. Stop breeding hogs until demand rises ffs. Why the fuck would you breed hogs and feed them so you can kill them and let them rot? Also, isnt packaging and freezing an option? 

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1 hour ago, Anler said:

Well thats what I am talking about. Stop breeding hogs until demand rises ffs. Why the fuck would you breed hogs and feed them so you can kill them and let them rot? Also, isnt packaging and freezing an option? 

I'm gonna guess that breeding has now stopped but what do you do with the pigs who were born before this was on anyone's radar?

There's no capacity for more packaging of pigs, that's the issue. 

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8 minutes ago, SSFB said:

I'm gonna guess that breeding has now stopped but what do you do with the pigs who were born before this was on anyone's radar?

There's no capacity for more packaging of pigs, that's the issue. 

Food depositories could probably use it? Instead of throwing it away. 

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16 minutes ago, SSFB said:

I'm gonna guess that breeding has now stopped but what do you do with the pigs who were born before this was on anyone's radar?

There's no capacity for more packaging of pigs, that's the issue. 

 

5 minutes ago, Anler said:

Food depositories could probably use it? Instead of throwing it away. 

Right...but read Shortsticks last sentence...that be the issue. 

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take them out of the fucking feed lot and put them out to pasture for the summer. only feed lots are fucked and really those are nightmares any way and I really don't give a fuck if a feed lot suffers . they make money on missery 

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34 minutes ago, SSFB said:

I'm gonna guess that breeding has now stopped but what do you do with the pigs who were born before this was on anyone's radar?

There's no capacity for more packaging of pigs, that's the issue. 

fucking pigs will eat anything put them in the woods and they will clear all the underbrush in 1 season rent the fuckers out to land owners who want to clean out tvere woods or grass lands 

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2 minutes ago, Ez ryder said:

fucking pigs will eat anything put them in the woods and they will clear all the underbrush in 1 season rent the fuckers out to land owners who want to clean out tvere woods or grass lands 

Do you have any idea how dumb you sound? How the fuck are you going to claim you can just turn a million hog loose

Edited by f7ben
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3 minutes ago, f7ben said:

Do you have any idea how dumb you sound? How the fuck are you going to claim you can just turn a million hog loose

how many farms do you know of that don't have massive barb wire acreage? fuck I have 80 all 4 wire and I don't farm shit 

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4 minutes ago, Ez ryder said:

how many farms do you know of that don't have massive barb wire acreage? fuck I have 80 all 4 wire and I don't farm shit 

Ho...leee.....fuck

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