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

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(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, board member and past president of the Illinois Pork Producers Association, 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 felt at the sow farms through the winter,” Leman explained.

Leman said taxes are an ongoing issue for the future of farming in Illinois.

“We continue to deal with estate planning and how do we pass these farms on to the next generations. How can we make it tax-friendly to do so? That will need to be addressed at the state level,” Leman told The Center Square.

The General Assembly has failed to advance legislation that would amend the Illinois estate tax.

According to the Illinois Farm Bureau, family farm estates are taxed at a minimum of 10 to 20 times the farm’s annual income.

Leman also said a California law is hurting pork producers across the country.

Animal welfare activists supported the passage of Proposition 12 in 2018, restricting pork sales in California by producers who fail to meet the state’s minimum space requirements for farm animals.

Leman says Prop 12 created an unreasonable housing standard for sows and is not helpful for the care of pigs.

“The last thing we need is seven or eight or ten more states adopting a ballot initiative that’s similar or taking it to the next level,” Leman said.

Leman says the IPPA tries to educate urban legislators.

“It’s always surprising to me, the lack of really understanding from urban areas on how food is produced,” Leman said.

Representing more than 800 pork producers across Illinois, the IPPA says the Illinois pork industry contributes an estimated $13.8 billion to the state’s economy and supports over 57,000 jobs in the Land of Lincoln.

Leman said Bacon Day, observed at the Illinois Capitol May 7, bridges most partisan divides.