Shannon Wolf
After twenty years of glasses and contacts, I decided to have corrective eye surgery. I went into the operation thinking that I would wake up the following morning with 20/20 vision and be ready to work. To say the least, I had unrealistic expectations. Instead I woke up with one eye throbbing with pain. As it turned out, my flap had moved overnight and had to be repositioned. This set me back to stage one. Now on day two, I am able to see enough to get around and accomplish some of my responsibilities.
So, you are asking yourself what does my experience have to do with the hog industry? Nothing, directly. But in our current market situation, maybe now is the best time to take a look at what can be changed on our operations. Sure, I could have stayed with glasses and contacts, but I felt that surgery had a better outlook in the long run. With record high corn prices, maybe now is the time to look at alternative feeds. Fertilizer prices are up around 50% from last year. Maybe now is the time to talk with neighbors about getting extra manure.
In the past four to six weeks, we have seen an increase in market prices. This increase will be passed onto the consumer in the grocery store. Is this a good thing or bad? I would like to believe that if consumers are having to pay more for their food, that maybe they will be less critical of issues faced by producers, including animal welfare and farming practices.
I encourage you to take a look at your current situation and make changes that could help you and your operation. Maybe waiting for the markets to turn is your best option. That is for your operation to decide. Give yourself time to see the changes, and don’t expect things will change overnight. More than likely, that is unrealistic.