Lower feed costs and strong consumer demand have returned profitability for hog farmers des­pite challenges from a virus that has killed millions of pigs, livestock economist Steve Meyer said last week at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines.

"It’s one of those ironic situations," said Meyer, president of Par­agon Econ­omics in Adel. "There are individual producers, especially those that sell weaned pigs, that are going to be hurting. But as an industry, it’s going to be a great year financially."

With this year’s corn and soybean crops off to a good...