I wear many hats, and one of them is that I raise hogs for slaughter.  Lots of them.  I am being directly affected by the Tyson and IPC shut downs.  Is anybody else here affected?  Do you raise hogs, or maybe work at one of the plants?  Maybe you own a butcher shop and are being over run?  Just curious.

I haven't been affected directly, but a while back I had committed to buy half a hog from a friend who does small-scale farming. My wife just picked it up yesterday. The packing house is swamped and it's hard to even get through to them. He said you can get entire hog for almost nothing right now because farmers are having such a hard time moving them. Tempting, but my freezer is already packed full of venison and now pork. Maybe I can do a pig roast and have all the neighbors come take some. Best of luck to you, I hope you are able to get yours processed soon.

What county are you in? I asked one of my friends about it and he got lucky, he was able to drop his off at Logan before they closed. He said he was not permitted to sell of any even if the plant was closed, he would he the kill them and dispose of them. I know all he has now are piglets, I would think if Tyson's isnt buying them from the farmer it is theirs to do with what they want with them.

They're probably contract hogs. The farmer doesn't own them. The packing company does, the packing company owns the piglets, pays for veterinary care, delivers the feed, sends the trucks to pick them up, and cuts a check to the farmer for $XX per head for raising them.

Yesterday I scored a hog, must not have been a contract one. I had just recieved half of one, already processed, the week before, but for the price I couldn't pass this one up. I feel bad for the guy who still has hundreds of them left in his barn, though.

Miami County.  We do contract finish.  Luckily, Tyson and IPC are up and running again at partial strength.  We are due to start selling in a week or 2, so I hope they continue to ramp up their operations.  I'm not 100% sure what the company we raise for is going to do if we get into a position where the pigs are too big to go to the packers.  Hopefully we can at least donate to food banks and such.

Well, if something happens and you need help "killing" your pigs I would be willing to help kill about 10-20 (maybe more) if the fee for such an opportunity were right...

ETA, and that's not a joke...we have the necessary equipment and facilities to come to you and take them offsite for appropriate killing and disposal.

Good to know.  Thank you!

My dad and I raise hogs.  Luckily so far we have been able to keep moving them out.  To a broker in New York of all places, who is selling them to locals in his area for butchering at their local small scale packers.