Dan Vought, associate vice-president for A.G. Edwards and Sons, discusses the impact corn prices might have on hog producers throughout the U.S. on Wednesday during the Farm Outlook Seminar at Southwest Minnesota State University.

As corn prices continue go to up with ethanol plants being built throughout the country, some analysts believe hog producers will consume less corn than in previous years.

The evolution of the hog industry over the last 15 years has seen larger operations overtaking smaller family operations.

Dan Vought, associate vice-president for A.G. Edwards and Sons, talked about the impact ethanol is having on the hog industry.

“The U.S. livestock industry has made its way through 6 billion bushels of corn over the past two years, which represents about half the crops,” said Vought.

Vought said if predictions are right, the ethanol industry is on track to consume a large portion of the country’s corn.

“Over the next three years they are talking about the ethanol industry absorbing over 5 billion bushels of corn,” said Vought.

“Who knows if that will be the case, but if they go in, you are talking about half of the current crop.

“If you translate that into acreage, you are talking about as much as 30 million acres in 2008.”

With the expansion of ethanol plants around the U.S., Vought said analysts are predicting a decrease in the amount of corn consumed by the hog industry.

“The energy and grain analysts predict we’re going to knock 15 to 20 percent off of that livestock consumption over the next three or four years,” said Vought.

Source: Marshall Independent