By: Holly Fujan
There are numerous reasons pork producing is vital to the Nebraska economy and agriculture. Looking at the state of Nebraska, there is no denying that Nebraska is an extremely agricultural state. With cash receipts from agriculture ranked fourth in the nation among all state, only being beaten by California, Texas and Iowa, it is evident that Nebraska’s economy relies strongly on the production of agriculture to maintain the economy. More importantly if you look at the cash receipts that come from livestock production in Nebraska they equal about sixty percent of all cash receipts that come from agriculture.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about the importance of pork production in Nebraska is all the other industries that are driven by the pork industry. When you look at crop production and the amount of corn and soybeans that are needed to feed all the hogs being raised here in Nebraska, without all the feed being consumed the farmer’s who raise these crops would have to cut down on there land and amount of production because there would not be a demand for crops the way there is now. Not only would this effect crop production, but if we think about all the money spent on building to house the hogs, the equipment used to in these building, as well as the trucks and other machinery that are purchased we can see how important pork is to Nebraska. We can also look at all the jobs that are provided to people that are related to the pork industry, whether it might be the farmer’s who raise the crop, the construction companies who build the confinement building, the trucking companies who haul the hogs to market or even the people who work directly with the hogs starting at farrowing all the way to the shelf. Everyone in some way has a hand in the pork industry and without it Nebraska’s economy would be negatively affected.
