Pork Producers Provide Perspective for Lawmakers

Top Row (l to r): Janae Metzger and Nathan Schroeder. Bottom Row (l to r): Logan Thornton, Chris Chinn and Chad Leman.
Top Row (l to r): Janae Metzger and Nathan Schroeder. Bottom Row (l to r): Logan Thornton, Chris Chinn and Chad Leman.
(Farm Journal's PORK)

From profit margins to foreign animal disease, there are a lot of things on pork producers’ minds today. Farm Journal’s PORK asked five pork producers to weigh in on topics ranging from what they’d like to change about their operation to the message they want lawmakers to hear.

Meet the Pork Experts

Chris Chinn – Clarence, Missouri  
Chinn is part of a multi-generational sow farrow-to-finish operation. Along with her husband Kevin, their son Conner and Kevin’s parents, they also raise cattle, corn, soybeans and hay. 

Chad Leman – Eureka, Illinois
Leman is the owner of Leman Farms Inc., which markets approximately 110,000 pigs annually along with raising corn and soybeans. They operate a full-service Pioneer seed dealership and work with eight contract growers across central Illinois.

Janae Metzger – Alvord, Iowa
Metzger is part of a multi-generational diversified agricultural business that includes a grain elevator, beef cattle feedlot, row crop, and farrow-to-finish swine enterprise that makes up a large portion of their business.

Nathan Schroeder – Leipsic, Ohio    
Schroeder operates a contract hog farm along with row crop farming. His family also operates a trucking business.

Logan Thornton – Kuna, Idaho
Thornton runs a 275-sow, farrow-to-finish mixed Berkshire commercial and showpig operation.

Q. If you could get one message across to lawmakers about the pork industry, what would it be and why?

CC: Technology in agriculture continues to help farm families bring the next generation back to the family farm. Technology has helped improve the quality of care for our livestock, the nutritional value of our feed rations and our ability to protect our environment by recycling our natural resources to reuse on our farms. Our farms may not look like they did in 1950, but the values and work ethic of our farm families have not changed.      

CL: Understand and believe that we are the experts when it comes to caring for our land and our pigs. We will thrive and continue to be the best pork producers in the world if we aren’t hamstrung by needless regulation and over-monitoring.

JM: Only one?! Continue to focus on trade and keeping the current countries our customers while working to regain the trust of former and new country partners. 

NS: One message I like to explain to our lawmakers, and most understand, that we are a family organization along with virtually every hog farm in Ohio and across the country. We are not a factory farm. We have real people raising real pork. The negative publicity that activist groups portray is just not how things are – we truly care about the animals we take care of!

LT: I would ask lawmakers to trust us to do what’s right for our animals, land and communities.
 

Q. If you could change one thing about your pork operation, what would it be and why? 

CC: Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything. We’ve become who we are as a family farm because of the lessons we’ve learned along the way. Our journey has not been easy, but it has made our family stronger. If I had one wish though, it would be to have a pig that is resistant to PRRS so our son doesn’t have to worry about that virus during his farming career. 

CL: It would be a real benefit to have more buyers for our pigs. There has been such consolidation on the packing side that it effectively filters out much competition. A healthy industry would have multiple buyers bidding aggressively for our pigs and rewarding high-end production practices.

JM: Profit margins. We are definitely focused on it, but there are plenty of external influences that can diminish them quickly.

NS: If I could change one thing in our operation, I wish we started when we were teenagers a long, long time ago.

LT: I want to break through and sell more pork locally. 
 

Q. What drives you as a pork producer each day?

CC: What drives me is knowing each day our family farm contributes to helping provide safe and nutritious food for our family, community and the world. We may have a terrible day on the farm where everything goes wrong, or breaks down, but at the end of the day we know our efforts helped provide pork for another family.    

CL: There is a great sense of fulfillment working closely with a team of employees and growers with a common goal of stewarding our land and animals.

JM: The people – those in the industry that I have the privilege of interacting and doing business with as well as those I work with on a daily basis.

NS: Raising sustainable pork is a personal fulfillment that we receive knowing that we are raising safe quality pork that family’s need and enjoy.

LT: I strive to be sustainable so my family can continue to rely on pig farming now, and in the future, to provide a great way of life.

We will be uniting together June 5-11 for PORK Week across all of our Farm Journal platforms to elevate the important role the pork industry plays in feeding the world. Share your stories and post photos on social media using #PORKWeek23 to help us honor the pork industry. From “AgDay TV” to “AgriTalk” to “U.S. Farm Report” to PorkBusiness.com and everything in between, tune in and join us as we acknowledge the most noble profession there is: feeding people.

Read More:

Girl on Fire: Paizlee Hardin’s Return to the Show Ring

Want to Drive Pork Demand? Fish Where the Fish Are

 

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