With feed prices expected to reach record levels because of federal ethanol policy and the recent flooding in the Midwest, NPPC and 20 of its state affiliates - representing 95 percent of the hogs marketed - Tuesday urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take steps to ease the pressures on U.S. pork producers. Since October, the pork industry has lost nearly $2 billion.

NPPC met with Agriculture Secretary Ed Schaffer to ask that USDA take the following actions:
• Support a waiver of the biofuels mandate (Renewable Fuels Standard) for ethanol as requested by Governor Rick Perry of Texas. If granted, the ethanol mandate for 2008 would be cut to 4.5 billion gallons from 9 billion.
• Support the elimination of or significant reduction in the ethanol blender's tax credit.
• Support the elimination of or significant reduction in the tariff on ethanol imported into the United States.

Source: NPPC/ Capital Update, June 27, 2008
Source URL: http://www.nppc.org/wm/show.php?c=3

Fire caused an estimated $1.75 million in damage when two hog farm buildings west of Dexter, Minn., burned and an undetermined number of hogs were killed Tuesday, authorities say.

Owner Kent Holden, of the Northfield, Minn.,-based Holden Farms, told a deputy that the estimated loss was roughly $1.75 million for the barns and contents.

Source: Austin Post Bulletin/ Tim Ruzek, July 2, 2008
Source URL: http://news.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=28&a=350178

Chris Chinn is throwing open the barn doors at her family’s farrow-to-finish Missouri hog farm and inviting guests to take a tour, thanks to the power of YouTube.

“In today’s world, putting a face on farming is a necessity,” says Chinn, a fifth-generation producer who runs a 2,400-sow operation near Clarence, Mo., with her husband, Kevin, his parents and his brother. “It’s important to use online tools like blogs and social networking sites to reach a wider audience and stand up for agriculture.”

Source: National Pork Board/ News, July 2, 2008
Source URL: http://www.pork.org/default.aspx/

State Rep. Jeff Harris, one of three major Democrats competing for Missouri attorney general, issued a proposal that said he will ”combat the growing number of corporate hog farms in Missouri which present a danger to the state’s environment.”

“CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) are taking over the state’s countryside, but heavy rains and flooding demonstrate how their effect reaches beyond rural Missouri,” his campaign said in a release.

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch/ Jo Mannies, July 2, 2008
Source URL: http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2008/07/harris-promises-to-take-on-corporate-hog-farms/

A coalition of livestock producers and food companies is calling on President Bush to lift the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported fuel ethanol.

The groups say that increasing imports of ethanol would hold down the price of grain for animal feed and food ingredients. Groups include the National Pork Producers Council, the American Bakers Association, dairy giant Dean Foods Co., meatpackers Tyson Foods Inc. and Smithfield Foods Inc., and soft-drink makers Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc.

Source: The DesMoines Register/ Philip Brasher, July 2, 2008
Source URL: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/BUSINESS01/80702026/1030

Rabobank International predicts the impact of efforts to reduce North American swine production will take some time to affect live hog prices.

The Canadian Cull Breeding Swine program has reached just over the 100,000-sow mark while sow slaughter numbers in the U.S. have been well above year ago figures for the first half of this year and are expected to accelerate. Rabobank International executive director of food and agribusiness research, Fiona Boal, says it'll take some time for those numbers to work themselves through the system.

Source: Farmscape/ Bruce Cochrane, July 2, 2008
Source URL: http://www.farmscape.ca/f2ShowScript.aspx?i=22799&q=Sow+Herd+Reduction+Expected+to+Take+Time+to+Influence+Live+Hog+Prices

A Bartholomew County hog farmer agreed to close his confined finishing operation and pay a $7,750 fine for environmental violations, according to Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM).

Ron Trotter, president of Trotter Farms, and a Bartholomew County Board of Zoning Appeals member, had been negotiating with IDEM after being fined $32,500 for a manure spill that the state agency said harmed waterways.

Source: The Republic/ Kirk Johannesen, July 2, 2008
Source URL: http://www.therepublic.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=111&ArticleID=121795

Robert Moskow, a food stocks analyst at Credit Suisse in New York, N.Y., in reviewing the June hogs and pigs report, noted Wednesday that fourth-quarter slaughter will "accelerate" because of the size of lighter-weight pigs that will finish and go to market this fall.

Comparing the situation to the fall of 1998, Moskow said "we would not be surprised" if hog prices slide to $10/cwt., live hog basis, at some point this fall. Prices crashed to $8 at one time in the fall of 1998, prompting a rapid and substantial liquidation and integration of the industry.

Source: Feedstuffs/ News, July 2, 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of maternal antibodies that piglets receive from their mother to PCV2 on PCV2 vaccine efficacy. Sixty 26-day-old pigs were divided into four groups.

SVC Interpretation:
• This study reinforced the importance of vaccination with PCV2 vaccine.  Pigs that were vaccinated had less PCV2 lesions and viremia than those not vaccinated.

Source: Opriessnig, T, Patterson, A, Elsener, J, Meng, X, Halbur, P.  Influence of Maternal Antibodies on Efficacy of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV2) Vaccination To Protect Pigs from Experimental Infection with PCV2.  Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, Mar. 2008, p. 397–401 Vol. 15, No. 3/ SVC Staff, July 2, 2008.

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in generic Escherichia coli isolates obtained from 90 Alberta finisher swine farms.

Up to five isolates were obtained from each of 269 pooled fecal samples and were classified as susceptible or resistant according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Of the 1322 isolates, 166 (12.6%) were susceptible to all 15 antimicrobials.

Source: AASV/ News, July 2, 2008
Source URL: http://www.aasv.org/news/story.php?id=3091