Are hog prices worth stealing for?

Monday, February 20, 2012

Hogs are traditionally cheapest in the fall. Still, prices were good enough that a theft ring hit hog farms in Iowa and Minnesota then. About 1,000 market ready animals were taken, according to Feedstuffs magazine. The hogs would have brought thieves US$180-190 each, up from $130-140 during the downturn.

Minnesota Public Radio News said two major thefts of 600 market-ready pigs, about five semi-truck loads, were taken from Kandiyohi County, Minnesota in late August. A KIMT TV report said 157 smaller pigs, worth about $80 each, were taken from a farm in Mitchell County, Iowa.

There was widespread speculation that more factors were at work than just price. One is general hard times in the American economy. Another is opportunity. Barns are relatively easy to enter and shielded from seldom-travelled roads by huge fields of tall corn. Farmers were urged to lock up their operations. One theft was unnoticed until it came time to load for marketing, because thieves took 30-40 hogs from each of a number of rooms in a large barn.

The ring may be broken up with the late fall arrest of two Minnesota men, John Arndt of Hayfield and Greg William Swenson of Rose Creek. BP