How America’s food giants swallowed the family farms

[KSnative]

Unfortunately I have experience in an operation similar to the one referenced above. I started a small hog operation, 100 sows. To diversify my farming operation. Sows were to be farrowed outdoors in A-huts. At 6 weeks of age the piglets were brought inside and finished in large hoop buildings in deep straw. The company, which remains nameless did a great job of selling me on the project. Things went well for the first two years. Anytime I had a pot load ready they were shipped the same week, paid within 4 days of shipping. After this "grace period " shipping was no longer a guarantee. At one time a had 400 head of 9 month old hogs, then once they got to the plant in Iowa they were oversize for their rails. Not only was I out 3 extra months of feed, but was also docked for being overweight. This continued for another year and a half. I finally gave up and quit. No argument from the field agent I dealt with. I simply ignored one of his calls and never heard from him again. This leads me to believe I wasn't the only producer that was upset.
In regards to what McFarmer stated. There are different regulations for the size of the operation and confinement methods used. I researched this thoroughly.
Also, electric fences are one of the best ways to fence hogs. Seems like they can knock over any panel, regardless of how strong. You could not push them over the border of a paddock that the hot wire had been removed from.

You are obviously very well informed as well as experienced, and wise to have made a study of the regs for your area. Regs do vary considerably by state. My uncle had a not-that-large hog operation shut down at a considerable loss, in an area far away from any town or city. And that in a mid-western state, not on either coast. States in the Delaware drainage came within a whisper of mandating that all bodies of water, rivers, creeks and runlets over a vast area be fenced off at owner expense, which would have put a lot of small operators out of business. Add state to Fed regulations, and I think we can count on complexity of compliance growing over time. T

Right about those hogs - what they can't knock down, they'll root under and if you get them excited enough (as when they smell death) I think you'd have to give them enough juice to pre-fry them, in order to stop them.

 

[KSnative]

My daughter went from huntress and multi-sport athlete to vegetarian based primarily on the treatment of hogs. I have toured the farms and heard the talk, but I now agree with her. Far from being vegetarian we have cut our pork consumption down to maybe a package of bacon or two a month, a rack or two of ribs per month and that is it. No chops, no loins, no shoulder (smoking) nothing else unless we know it is sustainable farmed.

I for one cannot understand how rural people put up with the stink. Pig farms have no rival. There are no dairy farms or smaller beef feedlots that dominate the country side like the stench of a pig farm.

Not sure I completely understand. Do you object to the aroma of hogs an an individual basis, or only in larger groups? If cost to the consumer, including less privileged income groups is no concern, I can see the upside to open air hogs. But one of the cornerstones of the 'sustainable/grow local" movements production near the retail consumer (towns and cities). Outside or not - the neighbors will be complaining.

Do you do and your daughter eat eggs? Or chicken? Or turkey? Just asking, because believe it or not I think I'd take a commercial hog operation upwind before a Perdue chicken farm or Butterball turkey "ranch". Affordable food for a growing population can't be lightly dismissed. Not saying you are part of the "let them eat tofu" movement, I doubt that very much. Just offering a bit of food (groan) for thought. A lot of my ex-neighbors thought filet mignon grew under plastic wrap, or so it appeared - deep, rational thought not necessarily being a part of their daily diets (re-groan).

 

[KsHusker]

If people like the corporate raised meat passed off as edible then so be it - I personally hate corporate hog farms and Seaboard in particular - they have hog barns all the way from the TX panhandle through KS up into Nebraska -- they smell horrible and just being near one knowing what the conditions are I dont know why you'd eat any of that garbage meat not to mention it's injected with a water solution and food coloring -- We pretty much stopped eating pork except for bacon until recently when we started buying pork from a farmer a mile away raising a handful at his house as a hobby/side gig.

We didnt eat much beef either again until we bought from a lady rancher -- I just never put the effort into sourcing my food differently until Covid kind of forced us to rethink how it was done. We basically try to minimize store bought meat as much as possible - I feel sorry for the people who have never eaten a "barnyard" raised chicken.


At some point I believe that most of the farmland will be corporate owned - once the ability to farm with robots (which it's already here - just not widespread or approved for use due to red tape) - and folks can control machines via mouse clicks on the coasts or some data center - then the big money will own everything -- if you follow some of the larger land purchases - who owns the most land - the wealthy are already buying a lot of things up - I was exploring ONX maps for some hunting areas I like inKS and one place in particular caught my eye - so digging in on it some Hedge fund guy in NYC bought a bunch of semi worthless farmground in SW KS --- I have a feeling the ground may have have been foreclosed on - it could have been an open market sale but I doubt it - I'd have to research more -- then there's the son of Russian Oligarch that owns 10s of thousands of acres onthe KS CO border and bought the local short line RR to control his transport costs -- specializing on how to squeeze every last dollar out of dryland arid farming - would have to google the articles to find him - but it's been on Bloomberg and other sites.

Once you take the work out of owning the land and someone with piles of money can out compete to buy the land and still eke out a return they'll sit in their mansion while the folks that live here and used to own the land are their literal slaves. That's unfortunately the way we are headed in my humble opinion. Kiss conservation good bye unless you can get pork in some bill or fatten the landowners wallets which will trend those with the most influence and money at some point I believe. I may be wrong and I hope I'm wrong - but once completely automated RC tractors are approved to run down our roads - I think you'll see the big money perk up their interest more - what would entice them more than earning a return and not having to do any work. Add in AI to monitor the weather and when things should be planted, precision farming etc and the little guy will be squeezed out completely.

 

[Haretrigger]

Damn Husker, thats some pretty bleak shit right there ......but I can't/won't argue with your conclusion.
Feeding the masses and providing H2O has been and will be even more so, monetized in ways we can hardly imagine...kudo's for spelling it out.

 

[Chestle]

So basically we end up like the British situation in the good old days? The game belongs to the landholder because the landholders control ALL the land and all the access. If you aren't buddies with the owner or paying to shoot, you aren't getting access.

"Despite what we think today, much of the land in Medieval times was owned and administrated by local lords and high kings....This meant that common people, peasants, and wanderers could not hunt or gather from lands owned by the king without permission or without paying a special fee granting them access. Breaching these agreements by hunting or wrangling animals off of lands from which you did not have permission was considered poaching. Nearly all Medieval officials took poaching extremely seriously and the punishment for doing so was often death.

5 Common Medieval Crimes and Their Punishments

The crime did not always fit the punishment

medium.com

If you trespass after the Richie Riches buy all the land...well, basically your like a poor English commoner poaching.

Like olden times, I suspect it will be best not to get caught.

So...make sure you maximize your days afield from now until then I guess. Don't see anything that's going to change the consolidation of land.

 

[Wolfchief]

Contract hogs are a business proposition--most of these are initiated by large Co-ops or outfits like Perdue, Smithfield, etc. They will buy the hogs, feed, medication, etc. and partner with a grower (ie. a FAMILY FARMER) who supplies the building, fixed costs and labor. Typically, the grower gets paid PER SPACE IN THE BARN, WHETHER AN ANIMAL IS IN IT OR NOT. And the buildings will NOT necessarily "wear out" when the contract expires--where did you get that crap?? Most have at least a 15 year useful life. It is one way for farmers experienced in hog production to stay involved in farming in an enterprise they know. IMPORTANTLY, these farmers also eschew the risk of buying feeder pigs at the right price and PRAYING they can sell the fat hogs months later at a price that's at least breakeven. These operations are heavily regulated--despite the BS stated above. For years the livestock industry has gone through the transition from small farms (by the way, how do we DEFINE small farms?) to larger, more integrated food and fiber production. It's demographics and economics; about 1.3% of our population are farmers, the average age has been about 58 years old for as long as I can remember. There are SIGNIFICANT capital barriers to entry in production agriculture, particularly for confinement livestock operations. I know; my bank and I have financed similar operations and witnessed them financed, profitably in most instances for all parties, assuming decent management, for years. This is the ag business today, like it or not. Question for you: do you like bacon, pork chops, etc? If so---these are some of the people who raise it---and they have to be pretty damn savvy at it to make a living. Most are no more "corporate minded" than you and me. Incidentally--for estate planning, liability, tax and other reasons, many family farms are INCORPORATED today.

 

[KsHusker]

Contract hogs are a business proposition--most of these are initiated by large Co-ops or outfits like Perdue, Smithfield, etc. They will buy the hogs, feed, medication, etc. and partner with a grower (ie. a FAMILY FARMER) who supplies the building, fixed costs and labor. Typically, the grower gets paid PER SPACE IN THE BARN, WHETHER AN ANIMAL IS IN IT OR NOT. And the buildings will NOT necessarily "wear out" when the contract expires--where did you get that crap?? Most have at least a 15 year useful life. It is one way for farmers experienced in hog production to stay involved in farming in an enterprise they know. IMPORTANTLY, these farmers also eschew the risk of buying feeder pigs at the right price and PRAYING they can sell the fat hogs months later at a price that's at least breakeven. These operations are heavily regulated--despite the BS stated above. For years the livestock industry has gone through the transition from small farms (by the way, how do we DEFINE small farms?) to larger, more integrated food and fiber production. It's demographics and economics; about 1.3% of our population are farmers, the average age has been about 58 years old for as long as I can remember. There are SIGNIFICANT capital barriers to entry in production agriculture, particularly for confinement livestock operations. I know; my bank and I have financed similar operations and witnessed them financed, profitably in most instances for all parties, assuming decent management, for years. This is the ag business today, like it or not. Question for you: do you like bacon, pork chops, etc? If so---these are some of the people who raise it---and they have to be pretty damn savvy at it to make a living. Most are no more "corporate minded" than you and me. Incidentally--for estate planning, liability, tax and other reasons, many family farms are INCORPORATED today.

Well if there weren't 3 or 4 major meat processors controlling virtually all of the protein market in the US with 2 or 3 of them being foreign owned we wouldn't be in this predicament - the foreign owned meat processors should be banned due to national security reasons #1 - #2 - they've put all the regs in place to make it DAMN difficult for local mom/pops to market their own meat.

I was hoping Covid would start enough of an uprising to change this - our business buys a lot of food so I'm paying attention to what things cost at the store constantly - none of the protein prices have went down and there is no shortage of meat - it's cheaper for me to buy the meat locally or nearly the same price when I dollar cost average the whole animal between paying the producer and the processor. Not to mention when you buy store bought meat you are paying for around 9-15% water solution depending on the protein to bump up the weight and preserve the meat/make it pretty. Thank God I live in a somewhat Ag friendly state that hasn't forced all the mom/pop meat lockers to close - all of them are so far booked in advance some you have to wait months to get animals in to be processed.

Big meat needs to be broken up - but they've probably bought out all of our elected officials to keep the regs in their favor. I'd love nothing more than to see Tyson, Cargill, JBS, Smithfield all pound sand - especially the foreign owned companies -- JBS and Smithfield I believe out of those 4 I mentioned. I wont buy any of their crap if I can avoid it - their meat is gross all injected with solution and food coloring and mass produced anyways.


Farmers have also brought some of this stuff on themselves by being poor business people - I've spent quite a bit of time looking to sell some things and move into ag land and it makes virtually no economic sense most of the time - Dirt heads as my wildlife/land manager buddy likes to call them (no offense to the good ones) overpay for stuff -- I guess if they can and have the money that's fine - but looking at land as an investment is a complete joke. Maybe it wasnt that way years ago as I remember an older farmer that let us hunt educating me on futures he traded via a station in his house to look at prices and the idea of buying land, putting part of it in CRP and getting the land payment made then profiting on the crop -- this was in the 90s and he owned 2-3k acres in SE KS near Parsons.

It is near impossible to put 30% down - get a land loan at 3.5% interest and even break even on land cash renting it, enrolling it in CRP etc. I've given up on the idea of investing in any land -- Ranchland is even more of a joke -- the risk I'd have to take and the only way I'd make money is by montetizing the wildlife or creating something else to make money. No wonder no one wants to start out farming now unless you inherit it which allows you to overpay for the land to add more if you have no debt to begin with. Which is what I think part of the problem family farmers created for themselves -- Add in big boys like Bill Gates and the hedgies who can shear volume buy and the barriers to entry are even higher. I'm sure the occasonional deal is out there - but seems to be like a needle in a haystack -- my volume of calls to land brokers was talking to around 10 of them and they all shot straight with me understanding that I was logical in my approach but it was not reasonable or reality to expect to break even by putting 20-30% down and using land as an investment vehicle to make a profit - you'd most likely loose unless you paid cash or had other assets that were already making money to pay for your addition. As a farming "outsider" I dont even see the point unless you can buy 5-10k or 20k acres and put some easements on it, do a mineral play, create a rec business, develop your own direct to consumer beef etc.