Packer Options

Illinois has three primary packer options: Cargill's Excel plant at Beardstown, where 18,000 hogs are processed daily; Smithfield's Farmland Foods plant at Monmouth, with a daily capacity of 11,000; and the producer-owned cooperative Meadowbrook Farms, which processes about 3,500 head daily at its plant in Rantoul. Triumph Foods of St. Joseph, MO, is also scheduled to open a new plant in East Moline, IL, in mid 2010. (See page 44.)

Although there are just a few packers within Illinois' borders, Lehmann points out there are many options within a reasonable trucking distance, including several packers in Iowa and Indiana. A portion of his pigs go to Indiana Packers in Delphi, IN, and Meadowbrook Farms, with the majority going to Cargill at Beardstown, IL.

Cargill spokesperson Mark Klein says Illinois' robust swine industry is a “very important” resource to Cargill's pork business. Cargill purchased the Beardstown plant from Oscar Mayer in 1987. In 1995, Cargill doubled the processing capacity, moving from one to two shifts per day. Currently, the plant employs 2,200 people.

According to Klein, about 55-60% of the 18,000 hogs processed daily come from Illinois producers. The rest are from Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan.

Klein strikes a comparison between the Illinois plant and a plant Cargill purchased in Marshall, MO, in 1995, where the company later ceased slaughtering because of poor hog availability.

At Beardstown, “we can still get the hogs we need to run our business,” Klein says.

John Kellogg has one final thought on notable strengths of the state's pork industry. He points out Illinois' rich heritage of progressive-thinking producers. “We live in the legacy of people like George Brauer, Russ Jeckel and Willard Korsmeyer,” he says. “These are people who could see the benefits of confinement and were willing to be pioneers to develop many of the practices we use today.”

Producer Group Goes on Offense

For years, county and state pork producer groups have used grilling events to promote pork. In 2007, the Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA) launched Operation Impact, using producer messages to market the product, but also the families that produce the pork, says Tim Maiers, IPPA director of Public Relations.

Generations of Commitment is a tagline that IPPA developed to help convey the story that Illinois producers are committed to the environment, food safety, animal welfare and all those production issues they've focused on for generations.

“In the past at consumer shows, we really haven't had production-type information available; we've always talked about the finished product,” Maiers points out. “We haven't really tried to make the connection that here's the product, and here are the families who are producing the products.”

Producers and the IPPA board are tired of being on the defensive. They felt this might be a way to be proactive and ultimately educate consumers about what Illinois producers are doing for the long term.

Open houses for new hog buildings have drawn large, interested audiences, many of whom have never seen or held a live pig or have any idea of production practices.

Farmfest brought 90, 4th-grade Chicago schoolchildren to the John Kellogg farm at Yorkville, IL, where they asked lots of questions. “I think we assume consumers know about pigs, but often they don't even know we are raising pigs for food,” Maiers says.

Mike Borgic, eldest son of IPPA President Phil Borgic, was added to the staff in mid-December as director of Membership & Outreach. His job is a tough one: keep all 1,191 producer and allied industry members of the association and grow that number, while serving as a sounding board for those who call in to air their concerns.

Economic uncertainty may spawn a lot of producer calls to the IPPA offices in Springfield.

Jim Kaitschuk, IPPA executive director, says hopes are that some producer risk management seminars can soon be developed, and podcasts set up for those who can't get access to the information.

It couldn't come too soon as breakeven costs approach $80/cwt., he says. “This is a time when we need to be out there talking to producers to find out what they want us to develop for them, and not just sit in our offices waiting for the calls to come in.”

*Karen Bernick is a freelance writer from Long Grove, IA.