His job just got a lot more challenging with construction of a first-of-its-kind hog farm.
Truly, for Malcolm DeKryger, there is no such thing as an average day at the bustling offices of Belstra Milling Co., DeMotte, IN.
Supervisor of five swine complexes that serve as gilt multipliers for PIC across the nation, DeKryger is also general contractor-manager of an innovative project dubbed “The Pig Adventure,” which includes a working hog farm (Legacy Farms) that consumers can visit, see pig displays, farm activities, and visit a restaurant tied to the popular Fair Oaks Farms dairy adventure at Fair Oaks, IN.
On top of that, two months ago, DeKryger, 53, was tapped to be the new president of Belstra Milling, handling the day-to-day operations for the feedmill that cranks out more than 120,000 tons of feed annually. That includes dairy nutritional supplements for about 50,000 dairy cows in northern Indiana (including the Fair Oaks Dairy) and swine feed for its farms and neighboring hog operations. The mill, built in 1966, is two years into a multi-million-dollar renovation project to greatly increase its capacity by adding new grain and ingredient-receiving and grain-processing equipment, he says.
Progressive Business
Belstra Milling is a family-owned business started by Bud Belstra in 1954. It evolved into an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), when son and owner Tim Belstra elected to sell part of the company to the employees’ retirement plan about seven years ago.
DeKryger, also part-owner of Belstra Milling, says, “We as employees have a stake in our work every single day and we relish that, gain satisfaction from that, and we feel blessed to be working with people who we like to be with.”
The tiny town of DeMotte, in northwestern Indiana, is a close-knit community that is very much reflected in the fabric of the workforce at Belstra Milling and its farms, he says.
“Our whole system really has taken on that personality in that we have lots of local family members who work in and around our feedmill. My children have all worked here and at the farms. My son, Nick, is coming back full time at the end of the year after he finishes his master’s degree at Purdue University,” DeKryger observes.
This summer, 14 children of employees will learn life skills in carpentry, electricity, construction and maintenance, among other tasks, working on the company’s hog farms.
It’s a friendly place to work. Many employees have worked there for decades and turnover usually averages below 10%. “The fact we are considered good to work for encompasses many, many things. It is a happy environment, an environment with high expectations, but one that’s financially rewarding and provides benefits that take good care of employees and promotes from within almost all of the time,” he stresses.
Career Steps
Born in Detroit, MI, and raised in Fremont, MI, for DeKryger, the son of a physician, working in agriculture seemed an unlikely vocation at first. He graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids with a bachelor of science degree in biology. The college is affiliated with his church, the Christian Reformed Church (Dutch).
“When I graduated from Calvin, I knew I wanted to get into the pig business after paying my way through college working for my dad’s brother, who owned a 300-sow hog operation,” he explains.
That led to an interest in animal nutrition and a master’s degree in monogastric nutrition from Purdue University.
For a time in the early ’80s, DeKryger served as an Extension assistant at Purdue on a sulfa drug residue avoidance project.
That launched a two-and-a-half year stint in technical sales and service at Central Soya Co., Decatur, IN, followed by a four-and-a-half year hitch as senior regional account manager for the northeastern United States with Fermenta Animal Health in Kalamazoo, MI.
“As providence would have it,” Belstra Milling, a client of DeKryger’s, was looking for someone to handle its growing pig business. Weary from travel and wanting to spend more time with his wife, Donna, and three young children, he accepted the job offer and began working for Belstra in 1991.
This year he is celebrating 30 years of marriage, and 2013 marks the 30th anniversary of the business relationship between Belstra Milling and PIC.
DeKryger is a 22-year employee of Belstra Milling. He has been in charge of the design, permitting and construction of 12 hog production compounds.
His portfolio includes management of the growing feedmill, and 140 full- and part-time employees with a company payroll of more than $5 million.
Pig Adventure
Since its opening in 2004, Fair Oaks Farms has been a shining example of a highly successful agriculture venue for the dairy industry. Heavily promoted with billboards dotting Interstate 65 and hundreds of thousands of visitors streaming through its gates annually to view production practices and sample tasty dairy treats, the 30,000-cow dairy has set the example for other enterprises.
The Pig Adventure at Fair Oaks Farms is expected to open this summer. It will feature a 2,800-sow farm (Legacy Farms) and a $7.5-million on-farm visitors center that includes state-of-the art exhibits, a hands-on electronic sow feeder and interactive ultrasound machine just a stone’s throw away from the Fair Oaks campus, he explains.
DeKryger points out that in May, three college interns will begin giving “soft tours.” Their summer project will be to figure out how best to give a tour and handle tourists and their questions in the 25,000-sq.-ft. observation decks above 100,000 sq. ft. of pig production that is Legacy Farms, a breed-to-wean commercial working farm.
Pigs will be weaned at 21-22 days of age and 15-16 lb., and are destined to be fed out in five contract finishing farms in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.
Public viewing of the breeding-gestation, farrowing and nursery holding areas will be above production facilities in glass-enclosed skyboxes. “The public never gets inside the pig production area, but they see everything in the entire operation from the glass-enclosed mezzanine. You can see a lot better from up above looking down than at ground level,” DeKryger says.
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