(Radio Iowa) – A new study from the Iowa Pork Producers Association finds the hog industry contributed more than 15-billion dollars to Iowa’s economy last year.
Association spokesman Kevin Hall says the study, which is done every four years, identified nearly 52-hundred pig farms statewide who produce one-third of the nation’s pork, reinforcing Iowa’s position as the number-one pork producing state. Hall says the industry is vital to Iowa’s economy, creating more than 120-thousand jobs. Among those jobs, the study says 64-thousand are in hog production, 39-thousand are in hog slaughter, and another 16-thousand jobs are in hog processing.
The study says the top five Iowa counties for hog inventories are: Washington, Sioux, Lyon, Plymouth, and Hardin. Among those, Washington, Sioux and Lyon counties each have more than one-million pigs.
