Hog producer: 2025 was strong, but IL legislature needs to address estate tax

(The Center Square) – An Illinois hog producer says 2025 was a strong year, but state lawmakers need to address estate planning for farmers.

Chad Leman says Leman Farms markets about 120,000 pigs a year and also grows corn and soybeans in Central Illinois.

Leman says 2025 was a good year for pork producers.

“Hog prices have stayed strong pretty much all year. We’ve been above break-even since January without a problem,” Leman said.

Leman said feed prices stayed in check, but health was a challenge.

“There was a lot of PRRS [porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome] and PED [porcine epidemic diarrhea] that affected most all of the producers,” Leman said, adding that the wean pig price remained unseasonably high all through the summer.

“A lot of summers you’ll see wean pig prices get pretty cheap, $25-$30 a pig, where this summer I don’t know that we dipped under $50 a pig. Wean pigs were just very much in demand because of the disease pressure that producers f...