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Pork producers encouraged to take knife to feed costs

A livestock market consultant encourages pork producers to trim feed costs on the way to better profits.

Adam Hocker with Iowa-based Future Profits Consulting says feed is by far the highest input on hog farms.

“And of that feed, corn is the largest cost inside there. So is there an opportunity to decrease our corn price by buying better, or using the tools of the Chicago Board of Trade?”

Speaking to Brownfield at a pork outlook meeting in Rochester, Minnesota hosted by Compeer Financial, he says shaving one or two percent off the cost of feed can really pay dividends.

“There’s some easy stuff you can do up front, but to get the next one or two percent you’ve got to keep on clawing (and) keep going deeper.”

Hocker says after corn, dried distillers grains and soybean meal are the other main ingredients in a swine diet.

He recommends forward-pricing those commodities as part of a risk management strategy.

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