Wandering around the World Pork Expo gives a visitor the hog industry version of what it must be like wandering around backstage at some big music awards ceremony, like the Grammys: you never know what rock star you’re about to bump into.
Now, the hog industry isn’t quite as sexy and exciting as the music scene, I’ll acknowledge. Most hog industry luminaries don’t carry the same glamour with them as, say, Shakira, who is one of the stars at the concert opening the World Cup.
However, for the odd and unusual folks who follow hog market analysis – like me – it’s really quite exciting to walk around the show here and continually run into Big Names. It doesn’t seem to matter which way you turn, you run smack into someone whose market analysis you’ve been reading for years and who everyone in the hog marketing business knows.
Yesterday, when I walked by the CME Group’s booth in the trade show, I noticed one of the people representing them had a name tag saying “Dennis Smith.” I walked past, then swung around, wondering: “Could this really be the Dennis Smith of Archer Financial Services, whose market analysis report I receive every Friday?” Yup, that’s who it was. He was there helping the CME explain how futures and options strategies can help farmers minimize price risk. So we had a chat and I felt instantly more closely connected to a great source of market analysis. It’s funny, I’ve spoken with him before on the phone, but talking in person seems much different. Don’t know why that is.
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Half an hour later I was in the pork sandwich line at the market and weather outlook session, and who ended up in line right behind me but Glenn Grimes and Steve Meyer – both leading North American hog market analysts and world famous among those in the hog industry. (A few minutes ago at another session, Meyer said today’s USDA reports predicting lower corn stocks would have a slightly bullish influence, but still leaves a giant projected crop coming, so it’s not a big deal.) I’ve met, interviewed and talked with both in the past, but it’s always pretty cool to run into them and annoy them with questions. Because it was a slow, winding buffet line, the poor analysts were trapped with me, but they took it well and answered my relatively dumb questions with good humour.
I asked some questions about the hog industry, but didn’t give up the chance to ask Grimes about what it was like to fly in a B-29, which he did for a few years beginning in 1944. Apparently the plane had a very early computer, a primitive machine the size of a filing cabinet, that helped control the munitions. He believes it probably had less computing power than calculator today. He also told me about how market analysis has changed over the last 60 years. In the old days he’d wait to receive the Hogs and Pigs Report of the USDA by mail. Then he’d write his report, wait a week for it to be printed, then that would be mailed out to producers and the industry. Altogether it would be about a month before the analysis was disseminated.
Now the report he and Ron Plain issue on the internet comes out within a day of any new numbers.
That’s what I like about the Expo: you get a chance to get a little more perspective on the industry from casual talks with people who operate at the upper levels of analysis. It’s a festival of analysis here.
Warren Buffett calls Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting “Woodstock for capitalists.” The World Pork Expo is like Woodstock for Hog Producers.
