Minnesota pig farmer running out of choices

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Minnesota pig farmer running out of choices

A Minnesota pork producer says it looks like he will have to euthanize some hogs.

Mike Patterson of Kenyon is part of a sow cooperative that contracts with the Smithfield processing plant in Sioux Falls that closed in mid-April after employees contracted COVID-19.

“In the beginning we knew that euthanizing or depopulating hogs was going to be an option (but) not one that any of us wanted to really have to consider. But at this point we’re pretty much getting to the point where we’re just about out of time.”

Not only is the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls still closed, but Patterson tells Brownfield two other plants owned by Smithfield that he was able to get some hogs into are closed now too.

“So I just don’t see any way to house the animals from a physical standpoint, just to have physical room for those animals on our farm for very much longer at all.”

Patterson has changed diets to slow growth and sold some animals locally.

But he says by the end of this week, about a third of the 3,000 hogs that would’ve normally already been marketed will still be in his barns.