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“Something always comes through”: Minnesota producer battles ongoing swine diseases

A pig farmer from southern Minnesota says disease pressure continues to be a challenge.

Sam Ziegler is a contract grower in Blue Earth County.

“Different strains of viruses, PRRS or whatever that keep coming through. As soon as you get your herd healthy again it feels like something else comes through, so that’s been really tough.”

He tells Brownfield there are dense hog populations in his part of the state.

“So south-central Minnesota, and there’s just a lot of pigs in the area. So there’s just a lot of things in the air, and that continues to be our ‘Achilles’ heel’ I guess you could call it.”

Blue Earth is the second-largest hog-producing county in Minnesota, averaging around one million hogs per year.

Minnesota trails only Iowa for total hog inventory and production in the U.S.