Good News

The Nicollet County Pork Producers will be holding their annual meeting on Saturday evening, Feb. 23. They have some good news to report.

Nicollet County ranks fourth the state for hog production. This past year, our county marketed 713,000 hogs. This generated $119.6 million in gross income and resulted in another $334 million in economic spinoff. In addition to the economic contributions to our rural communities, we utilized 7.48 million bushels of locally grown corn and 2.7 million bushels of soybeans. Across the state, pork production creates 22,500 jobs. Job well done!

What does this mean.  Here is a little bit more explanation.

More income means: farmers probably used the increased income to repair and upgrade equipment. They might have purchased a newer pickup, or tractors, skid steers, augers, loaders, wagons, combines, semi trucks, trailers, or many other types of equipment needed in a hog operation. They probably did upkeep on the buildings, feeders, manure storage areas etc.

Economic spinoff means: the added business generated from all of the above activity from farm supply and other businesses that sell to farmers.

Using the corn locally: the biggest benefit here is that energy is saved when the end use of the product is local. There is less wear and tear on local and regional highways than the alternative of hauling grain to a regional terminal. There is benefit to a local feed mill who grinds the grain to prepare it for feed. This means jobs and more economic benefit.

Local livestock: the benefit of raising livestock locally is the manure that goes back onto the nearby fields to fertilize next year's crop. It is a natural fertilizer and using it decreases our dependence on oil.

The big end result is job creation. end