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Iowa | Disclaimer: Everything on this farm more than 18 months old was paid for with hogs. And they are still here.
Cows:
1) Don't need much $7.50 corn
2) Doesn't matter what time of day you check them other than at calving
3) You can take a peak at them and stay clean
4) Since you already have them, investment is already there, not much cash cost
5) Some health problems , but not much
6) Marketing is once a year
Hogs:
1) Eat gobs and gobs and gobs of $7.50 corn and $450 meal
2) Need chored twice a day
3) I think 4 showers in one day is my record. You can't check on them without STINKING.
4) You better have DEEP pockets or be able to sleep with TONS of short-term debt
5) They get every disease known to man, and when they don't have a disease, they're just "sick" with something.
6) Better have a strong back pulling out the deads. If you have a strong back, you soon won't.
7) Marketing is continual and never-ending. Did you know many days the weighted average market price for 200,000 head is set by less than 100 pigs? The market is heavily manipulated against you
8) You had better have a full semi load to get a decent bid. The days of hauling a few to market on your gooseneck are all but over.
Hogs have been good to me. They have, in the past, been a very good way for someone with a "attention to detail" attitude and a great work ethic to get ahead. I started this operation from total scratch 35 years ago and would not be where I am without them. I needed them to be fully employed--can't expect full-time pay with a part-time (crops only) job. But the days of hogs being an independent producer's "mortgage lifters" are over. All good things have a lifespan, and it's over (for the most part). No regrets here, but I sure wouldn't "get back into" it if I was out.
Keep the cows, sell the cows, whatever. Sell the grain and make $$! Re-think it once the pendulum swings and grains are again cheap--IT WILL HAPPEN. But not right now.
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Selling the cows and going back into hogs--ARE YOU SERIOUS?
