Forty years on his Winthrop hog farm and never has it come down to this.
"There is no market that is able to take them," said Harry Sloot.
He had more than a thousand hogs ready to be processed, but Coronavirus closures at pork plants and restaurants have left hundreds of pigs sitting on their farm.
He is still trying to sell them.
"People that are interested in purchasing them for their own use," said Sloot. "We'd love to sell them."
Unfortunately roughly 200 are left and Harry may be faced with a heartbreaking reality.
"We don't want to have to do the unthinkable which would be to euthanize these hogs because there's no where to go with them," said Sloot.
Harry's dilemma is shared by hundreds of hog farmers across Minnesota with the closing of pork processing plants in Worthington and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Thousands of hogs could be put down.
"That's a cold reality that is really gut wrenching for farms, but there's no other choice at this point in time," said David Preisler with the Minnesota Pork Producers Association.
He estimates between 200,000-300,000 pigs will be euthanized.
He hopes a solution is coming.
"It's one thing to sit and talk about we all want the plants to open. It's another thing to make it happen and that's the step right now," said Preisler.
Harry worries even if plants reopen, the backlog remains.
"You might say the damage has already been done," said Sloot. "And now we have to deal with it."
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