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Wisconsin ag officials looking for alternative hog markets
Wisconsin’s Ag Secretary says his agency is working with pork producers to find alternative slaughter capacity and further processing for market-ready hogs.
Randy Romanski says, “We are connecting processors to retailers and we’ve had some successes already in moving about 100 hogs through the supply chain, just smaller meat plants that are willing to take them and move them through the system.”
Romanski says the numbers are small so far, but his team is continuing to look for local meat processors and other non-traditional buyers so farmers can sell the animals instead of euthanizing them because packing plants can’t take them. “It’s extremely difficult for a livestock producer to make the decision to euthanize an animal they’ve spent so much time and energy caring for, so we’re trying to work with them to address that.”
Romanski says their efforts are moving small numbers of pigs, but they’re continuing to work with the industry to find a place for those animals to go.
If needed, Romanski says they’re looking at options producers can use to euthanize animals.
