Pork center director says crisis could chop out producers

The interim associate director of the Iowa Pork Industry Center says as manyas half of Iowa pork producers may be not be able to survive the porkindustry’s financial downturn.Dr. James Kleibenstein, an ag economist, says an I-S-U study earlier thisyear predicted one-third of Iowa pork producers were in a “weak tovulnerable” financial position. However, prices haven’t rebounded to theextent expected in that study, so Kleibenstein says as many as half of Iowahog farmers may now be in “weak to vulnerable” financial straits. JamesMc-Kean is interim director of the Iowa Pork Industry Center at Iowa StateUniversity.Mc-Kean says farmers who put all their resources in pork production probablywon’t be able to survive the loss of equity.