There's no pork in the federal stimulus package to prop up a giant hog farm just inside the Tulare County line near Corcoran. For the 40 employees at Clougherty Farms Packing Division -- many of whom live in Corcoran -- there's the same recession-generated uncertainty faced by most workers in the private sector.

And it may get worse for the hog business before it gets better.

Faltering domestic and overseas economies, overproduction in 2008, declining demand in China and a stronger dollar have combined to hurt the industry, according to Ron Plain, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri.

It's unclear if or when the farm near Corcoran will experience cuts.

The farm -- which used to be called Corcpork -- already experienced a major cutback early last year, when it eliminated its breeding division and became a strictly hog-raising business.

Clougherty made that move in order to settle a lawsuit filed by animal rights activists alleging inhuman confinement of breeding sows at the company's California facilities.

The Corcoran-area farm now has 60,000 hogs, down from 80,000 to 90,000 when the breeding operation was still there, said Steve Duchesne, a Clougherty spokesman.

Young hogs are raised to about 275 pounds, after which they are sent to slaughter to supply a Farmer John plant in Los Angeles, Duchesne said.

But these are not good times for hog producers. They've registered losses the last 16 out of 18 weeks, Plain said.

It began with high feed prices that hit in late 2007. That was followed by a perfect storm of factors. Production hit a record in 2008, with 116 million pigs produced in the U.S.

That naturally started to depress prices.

Then came the recession, and with it falling overseas and domestic demand. To top it off, China, which had imported record amounts of pork from the U.S. for the Olympic Games, ramped up its own pork production.

That cut heavily into exports at a time when the industry needed them to stay high.

The downturn marks the end of a long period of increasing value in exports: From $1.2 billion in 1999 to $4.9 billion in 2008.

Exports surpassed 20 percent of total production in late 2008, but that has declined by several percentage points.

"That will have a huge effect on producers' bottom line," said Cindy Cunningham, spokeswoman for the National Pork Board.

Hormel, which owns Clougherty Farms Packing Division, is expected to make further cuts, according to Plain.

The company's processing side -- with products like Dinty Moore beef stew and Hormel chili -- is selling well to frugal consumers, according to forbes.com.

But Hormel's processing division has still faced decline, Plain said.

The overall hog-raising industry, like so many other agricultural commodities, faces a tight market for the foreseeable future.

"Producers are having a tough time of it," Plain said.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432.

(April 7, 2009)