Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2020
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coronavirus<br />
Chris<br />
McCulloh<br />
Welton<br />
Chris and Lindsay<br />
McCulloh, who raise<br />
10,000 pigs a year,<br />
tackled the same<br />
problems other<br />
farmers are facing<br />
during the pandemic.<br />
The family, including<br />
Calvin, 6, Morgan, 4,<br />
and Hailey, 2, lives<br />
on a farm about two<br />
miles west of Welton.<br />
<strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong><br />
<strong>Farmer</strong> photo /<br />
Contributed<br />
the weekend for new pigs to come in on Monday,” he<br />
said.<br />
There is a highly disciplined order to what Mc-<br />
Culloh and other mechanized hog farmers do.<br />
When coronavirus outbreaks shut down or slowed<br />
production at meat packing plants in the spring and<br />
farmers had no place to take their finished animals,<br />
that order was put into a drastic state of imbalance.<br />
There was no place to move young feeder pigs since<br />
the space for finishing was still occupied by those<br />
ready to go to market. And, there was no room for<br />
baby pigs either.<br />
In <strong>Iowa</strong>, government leaders announced aid for<br />
farmers who might have to euthanize animals because<br />
of the backlog, although <strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> farmers did not<br />
have to take that step.<br />
In April, the United States went from its typical<br />
weekly harvest of 2.5 million pigs down to 1.5 million<br />
pigs, said McCulloh, who also works in marketing for<br />
Minnesota-based Pipestone, which provides multiple<br />
services to pig farmers.<br />
“You talk about a million pigs we don’t have room<br />
for, it creates a huge challenge to manage,” he said.<br />
“Everything is driven for efficiency because every<br />
week you move hogs to market. There’s a trickle-down<br />
effect across the board.”<br />
McCulloh and other producers had to get creative.<br />
All the fun things you like to do...<br />
with all the safety of professional caregivers standing by<br />
Grow flowers!<br />
Pictured getting exercise<br />
are Dorothy and John<br />
Feller. Growing Flowers is<br />
Marianne Dague. Enjoying<br />
outdoors are Bel Tubbs,<br />
Marjorie Harden and Gary<br />
AKA “Smiley” Bloore.<br />
enjoy outdoors!<br />
get exercise!<br />
Now acceptiNg<br />
New resideNts!<br />
Please call if you or someone you know is<br />
ready to make the move into a caring environment.<br />
205 Ehlers Lane, Maquoketa 563-652-2125 www.cloverridgeplace.net<br />
64 <strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> <strong>Farmer</strong> | fall <strong>2020</strong> eifarmer.com
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