Swine Flu Already Causing Woes for Petersburg, Indiana, Hog Farmer

Pork Industry Struggles to Recover from Another Hit

Weisheit Hog Farms, Inc. has been bracing themselves for the worst since first hearing about the swine flu. It has been over a week since the first case of swine flu hit the United States, but hog farmer Terry Weisheit, 46, is already feeling negative effects.

Owner of Weisheit Farms in Petersburg, Indiana, Weisheit stresses the need for more swine flu education. "People need to think scientifically, not emotionally," stated Weisheit. "Humans cannot get the swine flu from eating pork."

Weisheit goes on to emphasize that some of the negative reaction to pork products is due in part to the media's coverage. "While there is starting to be more media coverage on how people can't contract the H1N1 virus from eating pork," said Weinheit, "Every time they cover the virus on the news, you see a picture of a pig."

Weisheit feels that people are taking that image to heart, and it is something that his hog farm has felt personally. He figures that he has suffered a 15-20% price drop, losing around $15 a hog in the past week. "The price of pork keeps going down because everyone is afraid to touch it," Weisheit said. "We have to get trust back into the market."

Weisheit goes on to say that the 15 billion dollar pork industry has taken a couple of major hits in the past two years. He cites the price of corn and beans being high, due in part to ethanol production, as one of them. "I just started to cut back my herd, to get the price back up, when the swine flu happened," said Weisheit. He is afraid that the recent financial strains on the swine industry will put several pork producers out of operation. Weisheit fears that it might take up to several weeks for faith to be restored in the pork industry and for the future to start looking up.

Weisheit Hog Farms, Inc. has been a family owned farm for 75 years. It is a farrow to finish hog operation. This means that Weisheit breeds the sows, then raises the hogs. When the hogs finish out at 260 pounds, they sell them to the market. Weisheit Farms employs 18 full-time employees in their daily operations. They market over 105,000 head of swine per year.