By: Olivia Barnes
Pork producers all over the country are facing challenges as COVID-19 lingers. Since the shutdown, Agriculture has been deemed essential so employees are coming into work but it is not “business as usual.”
Becky Spearman, Bladen County Extension DIrector and Agriculture Livestock Agent of NC Cooperative Extension, says that farms are taking precautions such as more disinfecting and cleaning on the farms, minimizing visitors and non-essential personnel on the farm, and minimizing the number of people in one area.
However, the biggest challenge farmers face is not at the actual farm. Farmers are running into issues when the time comes to sale market hogs. In local packaging facilities, day to day operations have changed and this affects how pigs are processed because packaging employees are working fewer hours to avoid possible contact time, the amount of hogs processed is decreasing. The decrease in hog processing affects farmers all across the board.
Steve Tatum, of Quality Farms, says that he will begin to see the hit when it’s time to sell hogs. Because fewer workers are working at processing facilities, it takes longer to process the hogs. Farmers can’t sell when they normally do so they are holding the pigs for longer. Usually, market hogs are sold at 250-280 pounds but because of fewer employees working at the plants, they are having to be held in their farms for longer making them heavier at market time.
Farmers are hoping for pork production to resume as normal in the months to come. For now, hog producers are patient and adhering to COVID-19 guidelines.
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