?We are looking at something so horrible, I would not have been able to contemplate this even a month ago,? says Representative Steve King (R-IA 4th District). Representative King, speaking to Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network affiliate KCHE, shares his disbelief for swine producers forced to cull healthy hogs.
Midwest swine producers have started culling hogs, due to meat packing facility closures. Local meat lockers must also manage such backlogs. Some cannot accept pigs until mid-summer, fall, and even early next year. “The problem continues to grow each day,” according to Representative King.
?Over 100,000 head a day are backing up on us. When they gain, and gain so fast, it doesn?t work to put them through the plant anymore. I?m anticipating somewhere between one- and one-and-a-quarter million hogs will have to be euthanized. And if you laid them end-to-end, at four-foot long each and started at Minneapolis, down I-35, they would stretch all the way to Dallas/Fort Worth,? Representative King said.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN 7th District) invited Representative King to join him in ?a very sad mission? to help producers faced with this difficult decision.
Chairman Peterson and Representative King work to bring meat packing facilities in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota back online to help with euthanization.
?We have to start euthanizing market ready hogs. Some of them will go to the landfill in Worthington, Minnesota. JBS has agreed to do the euthanization and from there, they will go off to be wasted,” Representative King said.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, alongside the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Iowa Pork Industry Center, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach formed a Resource Coordination Center (RCC) to support Iowa livestock producers affected by the COVID-19 supply chain disruptions.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says, “Assist producers as they go through this process, from beginning to end.” He adds, “We have assembled a team of people who are here to connect producers with information and resources as they work through this difficult time.”
