Northwest Iowa pork producer faces ‘some real tough decisions’

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Northwest Iowa pork producer faces ‘some real tough decisions’

The indefinite shutdown of the Smithfield pork plant in Sioux Falls has put many pork producers in a tough spot.

Marv Van Den Top of Boyden, Iowa, who markets his hogs through the Sioux Falls plant, has four-thousand ready for slaughter.

“There’s no place to go with the hogs that are ready—and, of course, all the other packing plants are at capacity so you can’t get in there,” Van Den Top says. “So the question is, what do we do with these hogs.”

Van Den Top has a farrow-to-finish operation, which means he has hundreds of young pigs ready to move into the finishing barns. He tells Brownfield if he can’t find somewhere to move the market-ready hogs, he faces “some real tough decisions”.

“Somewhere along the line, I guess, we’re going to have to look at euthanasia on something—either the small pigs or the big ones,” he says. “That’s kind of what we’re going to be up against real soon.”

Van Den Top is hoping he can find other plants to take his hogs, but he says his options are limited at this point.

AUDIO: Marv Ven Den Top

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