Economist sees profit opportunities for pork

The coming year looks profitable for the pork industry. “Many are expecting similar production levels in 2025,” says Lee Schulz, who is currently on leave from Iowa State University serving as chief economist with Ever.Ag’s livestock division. He says several things factor into those numbers, including disease pressure and feed costs. “Lower feed costs are going to provide an incentive to put more pounds on those pigs and market them at heavier weights,” Schulz says. He is forecasting a $12 per head profit for an average farrow-to-finish producer in the United States. Schulz says producers broke even in 2024, and that comes after prices were down significantly in 2023. “This may be the quickest turnaround we’ve ever seen, although it really says more about the disaster that we had in 2023,” Schulz says. Production cost were down 4.7% in 2024, although Schulz says that is still 34% higher than production costs in 2020. He expects that to go down another 5% in 2025. Schulz says 202