Agricultural News
Oklahoma Pork Council's Kylee Deniz Looks Forward to 2022
Mon, 27 Dec 2021 20:38:40 CST
The New Year is a time to celebrate! Depending on how the closing year went, you may be celebrating that it is nearly over. Oklahoma pork producers are ready to ring in the new year with hopes of saying goodbye to some of the threats and challenges they faced in 2021.
Kylee Deniz, executive director for the Oklahoma Pork Council, told Ron Hays, senior director for the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network, that a serious threat to the pork industry felt in 2021 is African Swine Fever.
"We have had threats to our industry, such as a foreign animal disease like African Swine Fever," Deniz said. "ASF continues to knock on our door."
She said Oklahoma Pork Council leadership is always focused on increasing profitability for its producers, but it is also keeping close tabs on the ASF situation. As ASF decimated China's swine herd, it created an opportunity for U.S. pork producers to increase exports to China.
"Without China's market we are in trouble," Deniz said. "But then certainly what China has seen in terms of African Swine Fever is alarming, but helps us to be thinking proactively to do here in the U.S."
The Oklahoma pork industry, along with the U.S. pork industry and state and federal government agencies, is calling for all hands on deck to block ASF from infected U.S. domestic and feral hogs. Special attention is being given to the U.S.'s Caribbean territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
While ASF looms in the background, rising input costs have many agricultural producers, including Oklahoma pork producers, wondering how they are going to break even, let alone make a living.
"Corn is high, beans are high - energy costs - there is a myriad of factors going into what it costs to raise a pig today," Deniz said. "Like any industry, we are focused on those pennies because we are seeking profitability."
Hit the LISTEN BAR below to hear Ron Hays and Kylee Deniz as they look at some of 2021's challenges that look like they are following the Oklahoma pork industry into 2022.
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