Economic conditions require changes in family's hog operation
By By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 07/01/2010 9:12 AM
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DES MOINES —National Pork Board member Karen Richter who farms with her husband, David, and children Kate and Brad, at Montgomery, Minn., said their operation like many others went through a lot of changes in the past year.
"With the challenges the pork industry faced with the economic crisis, the high inputs, depressed markets and concerns about H1N1 influenza, we are no longer a farrow to finish operation," Richter said.
For a few months they were contract growers, but then partnered with the operation they contract grow for and now buy their overrun of barrows to finish. They also raise some breeding gilts from wean to finish.
"We've gone through the whole gambit," Richter said. "It's been a difficult time. We've tried to assess. We cutback on production 10 percent as was recommended when we entered into this low market cycle. We researched and partnered where we could, all to stay part of the industry that we love."
Richter said that hopefully it will be an up market for as long as it was a low market.
"We see light at the end of the tunnel, but we have an awful lot of ground to make up for," she said. "It took a toll on everyone in the industry."
As a National Pork Board member, Richter helps oversee the activities of the Pork Checkoff.
"The work of the Checkoff is very important," Richter said. "Before I became involved even on our state level, we used many Checkoff programs that helped us and made us better producers."
Richter's operation has participated in the Pork Quality Assurance site assessment twice —once when they were still farrowing, and again for the producer that they partner with.
"They were painless," Richter said. "It's great to have another set of eyes go through your operation. It's a great management tool, and I encourage every producer to go through it irregardless if your packer or processor requires it."
Richter and her family have been coming to World Pork Expo for many years. She remembers pushing her daughter, Kate, now an intern with the National Pork Producers Council in Washington D.C., in a stroller.
"We've been coming since the early 1990s when we returned to the farm after college," Richter said.
She likes seeing producers from around the country.
"There's something for everyone here," she said.