Welcome to the Barn
Dear IPPA member,

Welcome back to Barn Talk Bulletin.
MONTHLY INDUSTRY TOOLKIT

You may have noticed a change in the Barn Talk Bulletin schedule and layout. The goal of this publication is to provide helpful information about the pork industry to producers and farm employees. In the original employee survey done in 2020, we found that pork industry employees would like to learn more about agriculture markets, behind the scenes of business on the farm, more professional development and employee appreciation opportunities.

Each month we will send out an update with new resources relevant to IL pork producers and employees. We encourage farm owners to forward this publication to your employees and invite them to subscribe for more valuable information.
SEE IPPA WEBSITE

At IPPA, we are constantly adding and changing the content on our website. We recently added a new page to keep up with Barn Talk Bulletin. Here you will see past volumes as well as our other Employee Betterment Initiatives under the EMPLOYEE RESOURCES tab at ilpork.com!
NATIONAL PORK BOARD WEBSITE

Visit the NPB website for more important resources to share with your employees such as:
  1. Employee Safety Toolkit
  2. Common Swine Industry Audit
  3. Emergency Action Plan
Keep up to date on trainings and certifications which can also be found at porkcheckoff.org. Those include:
  1. PQA Plus & TQA
  2. Swine Managers Training
INDUSTRY UPDATES
Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report Recording

USDA released its Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report Thursday, March 25th. The report showed on March 1, 2021:
• Inventory of all hogs and pigs was 74.8 million, down 2% from March 1, 2020 and down 3% from Dec. 1, 2020. 
• Breeding inventory, at 6.21 million head, was down 3% from last year and down 1% from the previous quarter. 
• Market hog inventory, at 68.6 million head, was down 2% from March 1, 2020 and down 3% Dec. 1, 2020. 
Listen to the recording below as analysts provide their insights on the report, the subject of yesterday’s Pork Checkoff producer webinar.
Podcast Suggestion:

Tune into AgriPulse Podcast to hear from industry leaders for trending information. Last week National Pork Board CEO Bill Even was on to share latest pork updates.