Independent file photo Pictured are hogs inside a barn on the Ryan Vandendriessche farm located outside Marshall in 2018.

MARSHALL — Hog farmers in southwest Minnesota who previously sold their hogs to Smithfield Foods are finding themselves in a pinch as they wait to see how things turn out with the indefinite closure of the company’s Sioux Falls, S.D., plant.

At first Smithfield said it was going to close for 12 to 14 days, but now it says “indefinitely,” said Lyon County pork producer and Minnesota Pork Producers Association board member Greg Boerboom. “Forty-five percent of the product comes from Minnesota farms. They buy pigs from about 550 farms. That’s a pretty big impact on Minnesota when 550 farms don’t have that option of a plant to sell to. So it’s a big deal. There are farmers that don’t have a market for their pigs today.”

The closure comes after state health officials confirmed more than 200 COVID-19 cases are related to the plant. There are now more than 400 cases.

South Dakota is one of five states without a statewide “stay-at-home” order and is now one of the nation’s largest hot spots. Sioux Falls is the largest city in South Dakota.

Minnesota Pork Producers Association President Dave Preissler says Smithfield is trying to re-route the hogs it has contracts to purchase — but that the capacity of the Sioux Falls plant is 20,000 hogs per day.

“It will really stretch the capacity of all of those other plants to be able to deal with that, but we’ll see how this goes,” said Preissler.

“We lost a big option (as far as selling the hogs),” said Boerboom. “Our barns are full now.”

Smithfield, the former John Morrell plant, provides 4 percent of the national supply of meat.

If Smithfield isn’t able to meet the demand it could force farmers to hold on to their hogs longer, meaning they won’t be able to bring in new pigs and would be forced to try to find a way to keep their head from putting on too much weight.

The optimum weight for hogs is 300 pounds. Having to keep the hogs is problematic. Farmers not only have to keep feeding them, but hogs gain 2.5 pounds a day at that stage of their life, near market weight, Boerboom said.

“They’re getting too large,” Boerboom said. “They’re losing value.” Extra weight means too large cuts of meat for the consumer and it’s also too large for plants to process with the machinery they have.

Also barns are getting full with larger pigs and new pigs that have to be fed.

The closing of plants adds another challenge for pork producers, who are already seeing the effects of a depressed market related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Seventy percent of the meat is sold to restaurants,” Boerboom said. “And restaurants are closed right now.”

Smithfield Foods employs 3,700 people and produces 18 million servings of pork product per day.

Boerboom said a competitor to Smithfield in Sioux Falls is running at less than capacity because of having fewer employees and because of social distancing rules.

“They aren’t able to take extras,” he said.

Smithfield is doing every they can to make it safer, said Boerboom. “They’re putting in wash stations, putting in physical barriers between workers.”

Boerboom said he has toured production facilities and says they are clean in general.