Smithfield Foods announced it has sold its hog production operations in Texhoma, OK, to Prestage Farms Inc., based in the southeastern United States.
Included in the Texhoma operations are 20,000 sows and 71,000 nursery and 172,000 finishing spaces.
“Although vertical integration continues to be a key point of difference for Smithfield, these farms do not supply any of the company’s pork processing plants,” explains CEO C. Larry Pope in a news release about the sale. “The sale of these operations demonstrates our continuing commitment to shed non-core businesses with a greater focus on return on invested capital.”
Prestage Farms has more than 1,000 employees and contracts with more than 700 farm families who raise hogs and turkeys.
Its Pork Division began with only 500 sows in 1983 and is now the United States’ fourth-largest pork producer.
The pork division comprises more than 100,000 premium sows that produce nearly 600 million pounds of pork annually.
Prestage Farms of Iowa is a pork production division with 50 employees operating more than 250 swine finishing buildings.
Prestage Farms of Mississippi is a pork production division employing 200 people and contracting with 40 farm families in Mississippi and Alabama to produce hogs for Bryan Foods.
For more information, log onto http://www.prestagefarms.com