Does this make you hungry?
Check out this combination of oak and hickory that’s making these ribs smoky and delicious.
The World Pork Expo is a fantasyland of fabulous free BBQ pork. That’s what I’m having for lunch.
But the feast I’m going to tell you about here is a happy one: it’s the feast of renewed confidence in the hog industry that’s being eagerly consumed by thousands of people here today. Everyone’s cheery. Everyone seems happy. It’s the opposite of last year, when the thin crowds stumbled under the weight of two years of brutal losses and were hammered during the Expo by the sudden death of what many had hoped was the beginning of a spring/summer rally that would end the downturn.
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I spoke to a major Manitoba hog producer this morning who was beaming with confidence, busy helping market the swine genetics service his hog production company owns. He told me anyone left in the industry is top-notch, so with the renewal of profitable prices, the survivors are out putting money back into the industry.
An ag lender I just spoke with was telling me he and other bankers are also confident in the future of the industry and looking to lend more money. They also assume anyone left in the industry is a top producer who is going to be around for the long run. He told me he thinks both lenders and hog producers will be leery about loading too much debt on top of most operations after the disaster that everyone has just survived, but moderate expansions are likely to start happening again. If anything, a more moderated rate of building is likely to produce better prices for the next few years because expansion will be slower than it usually is at the beginning of the positive part of the hog cycle.
So, all in all, it’s cheery here. And as a reporter who gets immersed in this event, that’s a blessing and a joy. Last year was a pretty depressing affair. Today, it’s all joy and free pork. Hmmmm. Thinking of pork, I’d better get out there before it’s all gone . . .
