Highland Center, in Southeast Iowa | farmdude - 11/17/2017 07:54 I was reading the thread about hog prices as off late. Then a neigbor showed me a receipt for some fat hogs he sold in 1998 for $9.00 or about $22.00 for a fat hog. I still find hard to believe that happened. I never could figure out the reason for that. We have had as many hogs since an havent seen prices like that. Anybody remember that. Not a good time for the hog market.
Dear Lord, yes, I remember it! Too well. Hogs paid a tremendous amount of bills for us over the years, I'll never deny that. We wouldn't be where we are now if not for what the hogs did for us 35+ years ago. Till 1998. We did it all, farrow-finish, in old Gooselink pull-together farrowing houses, converted barns and corncribs, etc. We were at the point in the late '90s that we either needed to go into debt big-time to put up a confinment set-up, or get the heck outta Dodge. Our sons had less than zero interest in raising livestock, so it didn't make much sense to commit them to doing what they hated for years to come, as we were at the age that we wanted to slow down a bit too. Then came 1998. Made the decision for us very very easy. The hogs went away, and I haven't missed them yet. I think my husband does some, but not enough to change that decision. Our low here was $8.75 per cwt. |