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American Farmers Hope for US-China Trade Deal as Pork, Soybean Tariffs Ease

Kane Farabaugh

   ELKHART, IND. - Thomas Titus handles all the challenges of running his
   sprawling Elkhart, Illinois, farm, but lately, he isn't making a lot of
   money doing it.

   "We're producing corn and we're producing soybeans at below cost of
   production almost, and we're raising pigs at below cost of production,"
   he told VOA, his voice competing with the sounds of hundreds of hogs
   housed in one of several nearby buildings. "We're in a challenging time
   whenever we get to the end of the year and we need to shore up some of
   those books."

   It's not unusual for farmers to diversify their products '¦ but Titus
   says his pork operation isn't typical.

   "We're somewhat of a rarity given our size. We're a 600-sow
   farrow-to-finish farm, so we raise pigs from birth up to market weight,
   so our size and what we do is a little more dynamic and diverse," he
   said.

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