Pork producers were well represented at the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Trade Talk. I sat down with National Pork Producers Council economist, Steve Meyer. Steve shared his thoughts on the 2012 growing season, as well as his outlook for our next fiscal year.

“It’s been a tough year because of the cost of production. The drought drove corn prices to records and soybean meal prices to records. Producers have suffered through that, but many had some coverage on feed costs through the end of the 2011-2012 crop year in August. But there wasn’t a lot of coverage for the fall.”

“We had a lot of hogs come to market in August and September primarily because producers were trying to ship the hogs a little early to reduce weights. So, we had a surge of pigs that drove, what I think the prices to the seasonal low. I think we will kind of move sideways, still seeing some pretty substancial loss for cash markets this fall. The outlook for next year is a little better, but still not very good with only profits during the summer months. A real critical thing for producers right now is that we get rain next year.”

Steve also commented on what impact pork producers across the county would see if the farm bill wasn’t reinstated come January.

Listen to my complete interview with Steve here: Steve Meyer - NPPC

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album