By KARI KRAMER | East Texas Edition

A show pig at the Blounts farm in Grayson County takes a drink of water after being misted (pigs don’t sweat). The Blounts have created a thriving business that targets the region’s young exhibitors.      -- Staff photo by Kramer

June 29, 2006 - Somewhere between cattle production and a billion dollar equine industry, swine have taken a stand among Texas livestock.

Glen Blount, 47, a Grayson County swine producer, said swine production has maintained itself in the state, but has undergone some changes. Pig farms have either found a niche and gotten small or buckled under the pressure of trying to compete with the big boys.

Blount, a Bells High School FFA advisor and teacher, raises pigs, sheep, and cattle with this father, James, 76, on 50 acres near Bells. Pigs farrow twice a year and the offspring (who have won national titles) are sold to several FFA and 4-H members for between $150 to more than $1,500. 

The pair have come a long way since 1984, when the first portion of the swine barn was built.

“We had about five or six sows starting out,” recalled Glen. He said the two originally started working with pigs to raise show animals for his children. Little did they know they had entered an enterprise that would eventually become a trend.

What started out as a means for show pigs for his kids, Glen Blount (left), and his father James Blount, have expanded their operation, and worked to improve their genetics. Glen noted he owes a lot to his father in the farm’s growth. -- Staff photo by Kramer

According to the National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS), in December of 1995, Texas had 490,000 head of swine. Ten years later, in December of 2005, that number had increased to 930,000. Oddly enough the number of farms producing those swine decreased.

“The larger units began to drive smaller units out of business,” noted Blount. “Bigger became better and more efficient.”

Dr. Jodi Sterle, associate professor and Extension swine specialist explained the change the Texas swine industry has undergone in the last few years.

“The entire industry has seen consolidation,” she said. “Larger, vertically integrated, farms can take advantage of economies of scale, specialization of labor, and market access.”

Larger farms are beginning to dominate the market share and that has sparked some interest from Blount and others like him.

Blount said he sees the hog industry in Texas slowly moving in the same direction as the poultry industry. He expected large companies take over the sector. That would force the small producer to do business with them, if the conglomerate is willing. If the large companies refuse to purchase from small farms, Blount said producers face the issue of having no outlet for their market animals.

“It’s all about having a place to sell your hogs,” noted Blount.

It is this fear and the economic realities of vertically integrated groups that have divided the Texas swine industry into two distinctive sectors.

“We have a large number of producers with a small number of sows, especially those supporting the show pig industry, and a small number of producers producing large numbers of animals,” explained Sterle. “While many of the same issues affect both types of producers, there are some issues that are distinctively different.”

Blount and his father now keep between 20 and 30 sows on the property, in addition to the 100-or-so piglets that rotate through the nursery after farrowing seasons. For more than 20 years, the Blounts have held their position as one of the many swine farms producing a small number of pigs. But, like Sterle said, they face their unique set of problems.

As a breeder of show pigs, unlike large groups growing swine strictly for consumption, Blount said there are a host of costs incurred.

Breeding stock and genetics has always been an issue for the pair who specialize in Hampshires and Durocs.

“When we first started one of our major expenditures was our next boar we bought,” said Blount. “Those boars are expensive.”

Times have changed since then and now all the sows on the property are artificially inseminated, which is not necessarily cheaper. But, Blount said it has helped the farm to expand its genetic database.

“A.I. allowed us to use boars all over the United States,” he noted. And while there are advantages to artificial insemination, Blount was quick to point out it does not solve all the operation’s problems.

“The semen bill on this operation will run us about $10,000 a year.”

And, just because semen is expensive is no guarantee that the boar and the sow will produce a good match or a desirable litter.

“That’s the hardest part of breeding swine is trying to get your genotype and phenotype working together,” explained Blount. 

Remaining small was the only logical choice according to Blount. His father is now retired, but Blount still works a full-time job. Already the farm requires a lot of energy and taking on more pigs would mean more work for the pair.

“It has to be something that’s manageable for us both,” he said. “If we got much bigger than we are now, we’d have issues with disposable of waste and space.”

And, Blount said, moving into a larger operation not based on the show industry would be a huge step.

“All of the costs of doing business have gone up,” he said. “You can’t be efficient enough unless you do it on a really large scale.”

So, Blount and his father have remained a show pig operation and while they don’t make millions, they aren’t up to their ears in debt either.

“Our objective is to break even,” he explained. “We run this operation to pay for itself.”

On the flip side, there are the large producers scattered throughout the Texas and the panhandle. These operations may be home to anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000 pigs according to Blount. 

Both he and Sterle noted there are a variety of issues that coincide with a large-scale swine production. Waste disposal, water needs, regulations have to be considered. In addition, the public may not favor being neighbor with a swine operation, so many of them are located in desolate areas. Sterle said the Texas Panhandle is able to handle many of these issues and has seen success and an increase in large-scale swine operations.

“The Texas Panhandle, where the vast majority of hogs are raised in the state, is ideal for pork production,” she said. “There is a long history of large-scale livestock production, low humidity, an aquifer that is hundreds of feet below ground level, and a relatively spare population.”

In addition, Blount noted, operations in the northern part of the Texas have easier access to processing plants in Oklahoma. Only a small amount of Texas market hogs are processed in the state. Usually, market animals have to be taken elsewhere.

“Market hogs produced in Texas may go to Oklahoma, Mississippi, California, the Midwest, or to Mexico to be processed,” said Sterle.

Without processing facilities, people like Blount have few places to sell their overflow. He sells his in Gainesville at the sale barn. Blount suspected the lack of a major market outlet may be to blame for the lack of enthusiasm some people might have about entering the swine industry. Blount said there has been some talk of a facility opening in Texas, but to no avail.

“We keep thinking they might open one and it’s just not happening,” he said. “I think it’d make a big difference.”

Sterle said the idea of a packing plant is nice, but several things must be considered.

“It would be wonderful to have a large packing plant in the state,” agreed Sterle. “But, huge initial capital investment, governmental regulations, water availability and the fact that they absolutely must have a large steady supply of hogs at all times makes it a huge undertaking.”

Rather than fret, Blount said he will stick to the formula that has proved successful for him. Breeding and raising show pigs has helped the farm he shares with his father survive. Others in the state weren’t so lucky in the late 1990’s when hog prices fell to $15 a hundred weight. It was the setup of the Blount farm that kept it in business.

In addition to the show-pig producing sows, Blount and his father also keep 10 to 20 head of registered Polled Hereford cattle and around 50 head of ewes (Suffolk and Hampshire) that produce show sheep. The combination has carried the farm.

“We diversified so when hogs were down, hopefully sheep were up,” Blount explained. “Maybe one enterprise will carry the other.

“The last couple of years the hogs have carried it.”

Right now, the Texas swine industry looks good, according to Sterle.

“Production efficiency is higher than ever, we are in our 14th consecutive year of record exports - which adds value to all hogs produced - and while prices have somewhat dipped, last year we saw record production with high hog prices, something economists have told us they have never seen before.”

Even with good prices and increased production, Blount said he does not see the industry ever recapturing the days when a hog producer had a hundred pigs and made a profit.

“I don’t see it happening,” he said.

And though he loves what he does, he admitted that it’s not for everyone.

“It’s always hard, it’s not an exact science,” he said. “It’s labor intensive and if you don’t love it - you won’t give it what it needs to be successful.”