U.S. farmers reap the benefits of pork exports, but it's not just the pig producers that gain, Mark Legan, an Indiana pig, soybean and corn farmer, said at World Pork Expo, held recently in Des Moines, Iowa.
Legan said when he first started raising pigs in 1989, the United States was a net importer of pork. Now it is a significant net exporter.
"What do exports mean to our farm and my family? They mean opportunities," Legan said.
"If we didn't have the pork exports today, we would need somewhere between 25 and 30 percent less sows in the U.S. That impacts not only the pork industry, but the feed grain side as well."
Legan has been actively involved in pork and soybean organizations, as well as the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), and through those groups, he has gained more insight into those mutual benefits and how it is important that the soybean and corn industries have become involved in the USMEF.
He explained that he has spent six years as part of the USMEF executive committee, representing the soybean industry. Before getting involved with the organization, he thought it was simply centered on red meat exports, but he didn't realize "it was kind of a two-way stream."
Soybean associations and the United Soybean Board annually invest approximately $7 million to $8 million into USMEF funding, primarily in support of pork exports. That's money well-spent, he said.
Legan cited an independent study from the Juday Group that shows the value of pork exports to the soybean grower at approximately $1 per bushel, or 10-13% of the value of every bushel of soybeans sold.
"Now that's not pork production, that's pork being exported," he said.
That same study, Legan said, examined the value of beef and pork exports to the corn producer, and approximately 13% of the total value of a bushel of corn can be attributed to beef and pork exports.
Checkoff programs can often have their critics, but Legan is convinced that soy checkoff funds going to support meat exports is a good thing.
"It really makes an impact what those checkoff dollars can provide," he said.
