2006-06-07
Author: AM 1250/Mix 96 News
The prospects of profitability in the hog industry for the remainder of the year are not great.  Tyler Fulton is the director of risk management at Manitoba Pork Marketing Co-op.  He notes there's some variability farm to farm, but overall the latter half of 2006 is going to be tough.  Fulton stresses everyone has to deal with hog prices and feed costs.  Given those factors it's difficult to pencil out reasonable profits for the remainder of the year.  Fulton adds, currently, estimated profit margins are just slightly higher than breakeven for most producers.  He says the fall months are looking worse where margins for the August to December time frame are projected to range from breakeven to a loss of $20.00 per hog.