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Challenging year for pork producers

An Iowa pork producer says this has been a challenging year financially.

Dean Meyer of Rock Rapids tells Brownfield market prices are down and input costs remain elevated.

“We had our highest feed price coming off last year, and interest rates, facility costs, energy costs, everything is higher. And then the pork price, we’re not getting that summer bump on the Board.”

Meyer serves as chair of the U.S. Meat Export Federation and says pork production is outweighing demand.

“It’s going to be a tough year. We’ve got more production than what we can handle right now, and there’s going to have to be some contraction in order to go forward. And that is happening and will happen, the market always cycles.”

Meyer also runs a beef feedlot and says the cattle market is doing exceptionally well.