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World Pork Expo isunderway

The 21st annual World Pork Expo officially begins at 8:00 Wednesday morning on the Iowa State Fairgrounds, and runs through 1:00 Friday.

Tuesday was move-in and set-up day at the Pork Expo. We talked to some of the commercial exhibitors as they put their displays together in the Varied Industries building. One of them was Bob Brcka, general manager of PigChamp, Incorporated, headquartered in Ames. They provide computerrecord-keeping and analysis software to the pork industry, and have just developed a new record-keeping software system for the finishing side of the business.

Brcka says the sophistication level of U.S. producers in the area of technology is tremendous. “Personally Ithink it's going to be one of the few advantages that North American producers are going to have in the future,” Brcka says. “Are we going to have the cheapest feed prices? Are we going to have the cheapest labor prices? Well, probably not, so we have to be able to use informationquickly and easily to be able to monitor and make changes in the operations, if we're going to maintain a competitive attitude in the world marketplace.”

But Brcka says PigChamp's international business has also been very good–especially China, eastern Europeand South America.

Another big event at World Pork Expo is the Junior National Swine Show. It draws competitors from all over the U.S. One of them is Seth Smoot of Eaton, Indiana. This has already been quite a week for Seth. On Sunday, he graduated from high school, thenloaded up the hogs and headed for World Pork Expo–a nine hour trek.

We asked Seth what he gets out of working with livestock and exhibiting at Pork Expo. “It teaches you responsibility because you have to take care of your animals,” says Seth. “It's kindof like a job, more or less, but you don't really get paid. It's just that you get the thrill of going to shows and doing good–it's kind of your reward.

“And going to shows, you meet new people–and especially here, because you get all the free foodthey have–so that's especially good to look forward to,” Seth says.

Seth had good luck here last year, exhibiting the reserve grand champion barrow in the junior show.

Go to our special World Pork Expo page for more reports andinterviews.