Evaluating the Economic Impacts of an Evolving Swine Industry: The Importance of Regional Size and Structure

This paper analyzes the economic impacts of swine operations at the county and state level, with attention to how those impacts are affected by the underlying economic structure of the region. Two sizes of farrow-to-finish operations and finishing-only operations were analyzed using IMPLAN. The relative impacts were compared to the effects of recent changes in industry structure. The larger operations provide less in economic benefits to the local county than a larger number of smaller operations. The differences were comparable to the impacts of the small unit exits over the past 4 years.