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North Dakota | I remember it like it was yesterday. We where farrowing 300 sows at the time selling feeder pigs. All our customers quite and we couldn't give the feeders away. We had a 700 head finisher that we cobbled up and started filling. We had about 1200 hd in that barn. We sold as many as we could during deer season for $60/hd cash. Most guys still felt guilty and we were happy to have it. That cash bought the groceries. What really killed us was corn got to $3.40 bu and it had been under $2 before that. Spent a Lot of time with the banker, at one point we asked what do we do now and he laughed and said go do chores cause you don't have any collateral left so you can't get out. Then on a serious note he said it will get better we've been through this before. We were just getting started farming, just married, and broke was an under statement. This was a point in life where we acquired a taste for fine foods like macaroni and cheese and Ramon noodles. We ate pork in any form we could process it and I still enjoy pork today. The lessens learned early on made me very conservative which is good but looking back we passed on many opportunities that would have been good for us. But it's always easier looking back. We made it through paid off the bank, pulled the pin on the hogs and got on with life. | |
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Hard to believe $9.00 fat hogs 1998
