Speakers spent time looking back and looking forward last week at the 2021 Iowa State University Swine Day, as the industry grapples with lessons from the 2020 pandemic and prepares for future disruptions such as California’s Prop 12. 

Estimates generated last year indicate that only about 4% of hog production in the U.S. meets housing space requirements under the California law set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022. 

Hyatt Frobose, of JYTA Technologies, told Swine Day attendees that of the 4%, most of those hogs are already spoken for, so that capacity may not even be available to fit the need. 

“I think at this point, this issue (pen size and living...