Pigville Bank
Have you ever heard the term 'smells like money?' Here are a few ways Wakefield Pork and the pork industry contributes to a healthy economy.
Wakefield Pork heavily supports the corn and soybean industry though the feed we purchase for our animals. In 2009, to feed all WPI's market hogs, it took:
- 8.2 million bushels of corn, which took 43,000 acres to grow (assuming 190 bu/acre)
- 2.7 million bushels of soybeans, which took about 60,000 acres to grow (assuming 45 bu/acre)
If you consider all the costs incurred in raising a pig (including feed and veterinary expenses, property rent and taxes, labor, freight, and management/administrative overhead), Wakefield Pork contributed approximately $105 million into our local economy to get all its pigs to market.
Wakefield exports its pork to Europe and Japan through the Pork for the European Union (PFEU) program. By 2008, one of every five hogs raised in the United States were exported. Export growth has raised the value of pork by $40.15 per head.
Nationally, the U.S. pork industry produced 23 billion pounds of pork in 2009!