KETV reports Nebraska farmers are facing a difficult decision due to a disruption in the food supply chain.
“Some people are in dire straights. They have no place to go with the animals and they have to euthanize either the full-grown market animal or they have to euthanize the baby pigs coming in,” Terry O’Neel told KETV News.
O’Neel typically sells his hogs to the Smithfield Foods processing plant in Nebraska, but they are currently operating at a third of its normal capacity, leading to a backup.
He has sows ready to give birth and hogs ready for market, which is leading to a tough decision.
For now, O’Neel has extra space for the hogs, but that won’t last long, and when the hogs reach a certain weight the processors won’t take them.
In two or three weeks, O’Neel will be faced with those difficult decisions that so many other hog farmers have already faced.
Across the country, there are 150,000 hogs a day ready to be processed with nowhere to go.