Certainly, Mr. Eyking, I think the volumes that you're talking about, the tonnages, are about right. The 75% seems to be a good number, in terms of the proportion of feed to the cost of raising an animal. It obviously varies for different parts of the country and the type of animal you're dealing with whether there's more corn, barley or so on, but when you're talking about the hog industry, corn is the main issue that always comes up.
The point you raise is a good one. The corollary to that is the question of biofuels and ethanol, which, as you know, carry with them significant subsidies as well. So we have companies, producers, integrated companies that are members of our organization, for example, that are competing with the subsidized ethanol plant down the road for their corn. Certainly the kind of situation you're talking about, in terms of providing some sort of support—use the word “subsidy” if you wish—is something our industry would be prepared to look at.
I think what's interesting, though, as I mentioned in my remarks—and I know I threw out a lot of numbers—is that when we're dealing with grains, whether corn, wheat, barley, or protein sources such as soy, the price trends seem to be pretty level now. But the fact is that because prices are depressed at the producer end, it doesn't matter how stable the input prices are if you can't get the market price for the animal.
Those kinds of innovative approaches, Mr. Eyking, are certainly something that our industry would be more than happy to discuss. Certainly we have a partnership with our customers, livestock producers of all the species, and if that's the sort of thing that would work for the hog and the pork industry, then I think it's worth investigating.