Tom Hogan’s new brief is to stand up for the pig farmers of Ireland. In December, he was elected chairman of the IFA’s National Pigs and Pigmeat Committee. We caught up with the tireless County Limerick man to discuss the challenges faced in safeguarding and advancing a sector that has been dear to his heart for half a century.
As soon as he was elected chairman of the IFA’s Pigs Committee at a meeting in Dublin in early December, 2016, Anglesboro, County Limerick farmer Thomas Hogan immediately confirmed that his focus “has been, and will be, on the bottom line for pig farmers, feed and pig prices.”
Tom had previously served four years on the Committee and has been a keen contributor to their DNA subgroup. He farms some 450 sows together with his son, Niall, at Inchacomb, where he is married to Maureen and also has two daughters, Isabelle and Louise.
“I am honoured to have been selected to lead the Committee over the coming years,” he said following his election. “I want to thank the outgoing chairman Pat O’Flaherty for his work over the last four years, which has been a very difficult period for pig farmers”.
One of Tom’s first acts as chairman was to call on processors to immediately increase prices to producers in response to a rising EU market, pointing out that “prices across the continent have risen considerably” and that Irish pig farmers had “suffered a poor year despite price recovery in the last few months”
Taking up the gauntlet with passion and enthusiasm, Tom was not slow in making his objective of ensuring that the farmers he represents will no longer be given a raw deal: “Average prices this year [2016] will only be marginally ahead of last year as we have not recovered the 8c/kg drop that we suffered in October. However, this has been a positive year for the processing industry with a substantial increase in exports recorded and when you compare prices year on year, farmers have not seen the benefit of this which is so disappointing.
“Although the own-brand retail products are supporting Irish pig prices in terms of putting the logo on the pack, they must also ensure that they are paying a fair price for pigmeat. Retail support for Irish Quality Assured pigmeat product is at an all-time high, but there is always someone in the market trying to undermine Irish meat and this is a constant battle for the Pigs Committee.”
I asked the Limerick man how he feels about the daunting task of being chairman of the Committee? “It is a challenge for sure but I’m passionate about it and I’ve been working at pigs all my life, so I’m looking forward to it. There are problems there and issues that need to be addressed. The industry has gone through some tough times and there are a lot of issues that we need to work on, but hopefully we can improve it for everyone.”
Stepping back a little bit from his role at the helm of Hogan Pigs Ltd. means Tom has enough spare time on his hands to provide his fellow pig farmers with a very strong and experienced representative voice. “I’m at a stage in my life now where I have a bit more time on my hands. It would be very difficult to take on a job like this and also to be involved in the day-to-day running of a business at the same time.
“I’ve taken a step back and my son. Niall, who went to college and has been with us for nine years, is now overseeing the day-to-day running of it. I inherited the farm here when I was very young myself and I feel that you have to let young people come in and get on with it and make their own decisions.” Indeed, Tom was only 16 when his father passed away and had only turned 21 when his mother gave him full responsibility for running the home farm. Some four-and-a-half decades or so later, it would be fair to say that he has done an excellent job!
“The pigs started as a sideline to dairy and we had around 70 sows in the ‘80s. I went up to 450 by 2001 – when I decided to get out of cows altogether – and still have around that number today.” The meat from the Hogans’ unit in Inchacomb, Anglesboro goes to Dawn Pork & Bacon.
The new chairman of the IFA’s Pigs Committee has no regrets about his decision to concentrate exclusively on pig farming. “In my lifetime, I’ve made more friends through the pigs than any other side of it,” he notes. “I’ve had a lot of contact with pig producers and processors and I’m sure that will continue now.
“It’s a highly specialised business now and there’s a good bit of investment needed to maximise meal conversion rates and to give pigs space and keep them healthy. The pig sector has been squeezed and there are only around 300 full-time pig farmers in Ireland now, as well as some mixed farmers and men who do it as a hobby.
“But the importance of pig farming to the economy should not be underestimated. There were €650m in exports last year and the employment generated both directly and indirectly would be very big. If you factor in processors and hauliers and meal compounders, there could be up to 8,000 employed, so it’s very important.”
Looking at some of the more obvious challenges posed, Tom continues: “Small margins is a major one and the extra costs that are being incurred for a number of reasons, including the push to reduce antibiotic levels. Imports is another massive one and we would be hoping to see an increase in home demand at local level. Even if local demand went up by 10% that would be a significant boost. But the bottom line is margins, really, and no other challenge is a major one once the pig farmer is getting a good margin.
“We will be meeting with producers, factories, meal compounders and the Department and one of the tasks facing us all will be to see how we can work together as a group. We all have a lot in common so it’s important to build good relations as we have to work together 52 weeks per year. I’m prepared to sit down with everybody and see where there is common ground and issues that we can tackle together.
“It’s all about engaging in as much dialogue as possible and I hope I can be reasonably diplomatic. There will obviously always be differences of opinion but life wouldn’t be much fun if everybody thought the same.
“We’re operating within a global market and everybody is on small margins due in a large part to cheap imports. That’s why we have started the DNA scheme to correctly identify Irish pigmeat. We have to do everything we can to maximise the use of pigmeat at home. It’s Bord Bia quality-approved and, if it’s good enough to export all over the world, it follows naturally that it’s surely good enough for the Irish market.
“We’re not naïve, we accept that there is always going to be a certain amount imported, but there has to be enough margin there to keep the high-quality pig businesses in Ireland sustainable.”
Tom Hogan,
Chairman, IFA Pigs Committee,
Inchacomb,
Anglesboro,
Kilmallock,
County Limerick.
Tel: 087 2658637
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 2, March 2017
