Weaning farms are specially equipped for young pigs, with pen sizes that can accommodate the sows and the piglets.

“We have 73 different sow farms, and when piglets grow to about 21 days old, we need to start looking for the best space to house them,” explained Morgan Dugan, director of supply chain management and logistics for The Maschhoffs. Once small farmers commonly took on the entire farrow-to-finish operation – breeding sows, weaning piglets, growing feeder hogs and preparing them for market or “finishing.”īut rising transportation and feed costs – along with the complexities of hog genetics and health risks – have forced many smaller farms to specialize and contract their services to large producers.Īnd so, a large operation like The Maschhoffs must contend with a continuous flow of pigs between different types of farms – from sow (or breeding) facilities, to weaning, feeding and finishing facilities. That's particularly true in modern pig raising, which entails a continuous logistics challenge: the need to move pigs to specialized farm sites at different stages of growth. Running any large farming operation is a complex undertaking. The Maschhoffs provide pigs and feed to their production partners, and pay the farmers for the time, labor and space necessary to raise the hogs. The buyers are packing plants and food producers such as Cargill, Hormel Foods and Farmland. Contracting with production partners – about 550 family farmers across the Midwest – the company sells about 5 million live hogs annually. Today, The Maschhoffs' pig operation employs about 1,500 employees. In 1991 they bought their parents' share of the business and began expanding the operation. But brothers Ken and Dave Maschhoff returned to the farm home from college with bigger dreams. For five generations, The Maschhoffs grew row crops and raised cattle. Like many major agricultural operations, The Maschhoffs started with a single family farm. In 2014, the company sold nearly $1 billion in pork - enough to feed over 16 million average consumers annually.

The Maschhoffs - the largest family-owned pork producer in the United States – helps satisfy that hunger from its headquarters in Carlyle, Illinois. From the popularity of baby-back ribs to the national obsession with bacon, Americans have an avid appetite for pork.

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