If you could eradicate one challenge in the pork industry today, what would it be? Health quickly comes to mind for many producers when asked this question, but not all.
Here’s a look at how five producers would respond to the question.
“If I could eradicate one challenge in the pork industry today, I would choose labor. I thought about this a lot because the first thing that popped into my head was labor, but the word eradicate should make me think porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), influenza, porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) and African swine fever (ASF). We recently brought on two TN Visa workers, and we have felt the relief of having stable labor for the first time in many years. Knowing we have individuals that we can trust to care for our animals and farm allows us to focus on growing and providing for our family.” – Katie Brown, Illinois pork producer
“If I could eradicate one challenge it would be health challenges such as PED.” – Debbie Craig, North Carolina pork producer
“The easy answer for me is disease. If we could eradicate the big ones like PRRS, PED and ASF, life would have less headaches in pork production. Disease doesn’t only hit you financially but if you have ever had to work through some of these issues, it can drain you mentally.” – Wade Hendricks, Indiana pork producer
“Eliminating health problems would be an outstanding achievement. However, we should also consider the challenge of available labor in our industry, it is an issue that deserves serious attention for the future of swine production. When we look at our competitors across the globe, such as China and Mexico, we can see that they have a significant economic advantage due to their available labor force.” – Tom Layne, Oklahoma pork producer
“It would certainly be misinformation. Without question, one of the biggest challenges we face in the pork industry is the spread of misinformation. Whether it be intentional from activist groups opposed to the pork industry or unintentional from consumers who may not understand what it is that we do as farmers to care for our animals, it is our responsibility to be transparent and inform the public about how we farm.” – Chad Herring, North Carolina pork producer
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