Edwin Wipf Jr., Winfred; Evan Schoenfelder, Dimock; and Joe Hadley, Brookings, were recently named the 2016 South Dakota Master Pork Producers.

Wipf is manager of the swine team at the Shannon Colony. He oversees the crew that works in the colony’s 1,350-sow complex, two 2,500-head nurseries and two 5,600-head finishing barns. The team has achieved a high level of production using a combination of 50-year-old sow barns and a new farrowing barn, along with older nursery barns and two new 2,800-head finishing barns. They are averaging approximately 28.5 pigs per sow per year.

Schoenfelder, 23, is a beginning farmer who is a contract finisher for Brentwood Colony. In the summer of 2009 while in high school, he finished a group of pigs in some barns that were sitting empty, and that sparked a passion in him for raising pigs. In 2013, on the day he graduated from Mitchell Technical Institute, he broke ground on a 2,400-head wean-finish barn. His pigs are gaining 1.65 to 1.82 pounds per day while consuming just 2.72 to 2.91 pounds of feed per pound of gain. The mortality rate ranges from 2.81% to 3.7%.

Schoenfelder, who farms a quarter of land and also works in his family’s crop and cattle enterprises, is on track to pay off the barn within seven years of building it. The barn is expected to last at least 30 years. He says he hopes to put up a second barn in the future.

“There’s no better way than pigs to build equity in agriculture,” he says. “If you’re willing to put in the hours, it’s a great way to build yourself into the ag industry.”

Hadley is manager of Mustang Pass, a 5,400-sow Pipestone System barn. He oversees 17 full-time and five part-time employees. Mustang Pass has achieved a 96% average conception rate. The sows produce an average of 30.4 pigs per year. Hadley had great success training employees to care for pigs. His training rules of thumb are:
• Show them how to do it.
• Have them do it.
• Do it again together.

Hadley trains international workers in his barn through several government programs where they learn about the swine business.

"There is tremendous opportunity in the swine industry for people who aren’t afraid of work," says Hadley, who started in the swine business in 1991 without any experience. He worked on hog farms and joined Pipestone System in 1998 and eventually became a manager.

All of the Master Pork Producers have a passion for pork production and are very successful at it regardless of facility type and age and their previous experience in pork production, says Robert Thaler, South Dakota State University Extension swine specialist.

They are proof, he says, that “the swine industry provides tremendous opportunities for young people to return to the family farm and to continue that legacy. It can be a great career path, regardless if you grew up on a swine farm or not.”