Minnesota Pork Industry dishes out 2010 awards
from news reports
Date Modified: 02/04/2010 8:39 AM
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Minnesota Pork Industry Award winners were honored at a reception January 19 at the Minneapolis Hilton prior to the Minnesota Pork Congress.
Environmental Steward of the Year
Farming partners Pat and Kristin Duncanson and Karl and Jackie Duncanson are the 2010 Environmental Steward of the Year recipient.
They run Duncanson Growers in Mapleton. They finish hogs on contract and receive feeder pigs for finishing from a sow unit in which they are shareholders. They are also crop producers with finished beef cattle and they contract finished Holstein steers.
Brothers Pat and Karl grew up on a farm near Mapleton, where their 82-year-old mother, Mary, continues to live. Spouses Kristin and Jackie are full-fledged farming partners whose jobs include field work, business administration and agricultural advocacy at local, state and national levels. They've both served on regulatory boards and agencies.
The partners believes profitability and sustainability go hand in hand.
Their use a detailed manure nutrient plans for their crops, soil fertility improvement through soil conservation and outside consultants to assure they meet environmental and financial goals.
"To succeed in agriculture requires economically and environmentally sustainable practices while coexisting with Minnesota's valued natural resources," Pat said.
Their environmental practices have also been recognized by their soil and water conservation district and by Top Producer magazine. Their award is sponsored by Balzer Inc.
Swine Manager of the Year
Brian Oeltjenbruns, site manager for Schwartz Farms in Brown County, is Swine Manager of the Year.
Schwartz Farms, Inc., is a family-owned business with a focus on continual improvement, and nominated Oeltjenbruns for the award.
He was selected for his ability to implementswine health and production management strategies, as well as motivate his staff.
Oeltjenbruns joined the operation in 2001. He currently manages two sites, comprised of 5,100 sows and two dozen employees.
His regular duties include personnel supervision and training, addressing safety and biosecurity, monitoring and implementing tasks to meet production goals, pig scheduling, record keeping and mechanical maintenance as well as meeting budget and cost of production goals.
He grew up on an 80-head sow farm. He and his wife, Lynette, and their children, Dylan, Daniel and Caitlin, live in Mountain Lake.
His award is sponsored by Land O'Lakes Purina Feeds, Inc.
Promoter of the Year
What began as a third-grade classroom visit to talk about raising pigs has turned in an 18-year-old tradition for Vicky Singlestad.
She and her husband, Scott, brought a piglet to speak with their daughter's classmates about their Waseca County farrow-to-finish operation in 1991.
Now Singlestad organizes the Waseca school district's Ag in the Classroom program each spring. She has reached an estimated 2,800 school children. The students rotate between classrooms to hear four, 30-minute presentations about Minnesota livestock and crop production.
Her willingness to talk about her family's swine and crop farm and encourage cooperation between commodity groups has earned her the title of Pork Promoter of the Year.
"I am always teaching somebody about what I do on the farm," she said. "I am not a farm wife -- I am a farmer. It gives me a good feeling to tell people about what we do on the farm."
She's helped get agriculture-related books in local schools and ison the board of directors for the Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation. She also works with consumer educational events, serves on many ag-related committees and volunteers at the Waseca County Fair and Minnesota State Fair.
She and Scott have three children: Michelle, Kristy and Michael.
Her award is sponsored by Elanco Animal Health.
Family of the Year
The Thome family of Adams is the 2010Minnesota Pork Industry's Family of the Year.
They were selected for their enthusiastic involvement in pork promotions, industry leadership and swine production.
Gary and Jane Thome's sons and daughters-in-law, Matt and Amy and Pat and Gretchen, are partners in the farming enterprise. Their daughter, Sarah, is an elementary school teacher and their youngest son, Peter, is an agricultural education major in college. Both maintain a keen interest in farm activities.
The Thome's swine enterprise includes co-ownership with another family in a sow unit that supplies nursery pigs. The pigs are raised to feeder weight in the Thomes' nursery barns and are then moved to their finishing barns or to custom growers' barns. They also raise corn, soybeans and custom farm additional acres.
All four Thome children were Mower County Pork Ambassadors and Peter served as the Minnesota State Pork Ambassador. They were also involved in 4-H and FFA.
The Thomes volunteer at the annual Mower County Pork Cookout and at other pork grilling events. Pat is on the Minnesota Pork Board executive board, Matt has taken part in the National Hog Farmer World Pork Expo New Product Review Panel and Gary has a long history volunteering at the National Barrow Show in Austin.
Matt is in charge of the farm's nursery management, pig flow, marketing and grower relations. Pat focuses on crop production, equipment and facility maintenance and manure management. The brothers share employee management and training. Gary's role is accounting, cash flows, marketing and business analysis.
Gary's experience as farm business management instructor and swine specialist at Riverland Community College, Austin, helped form a cooperative partnership among the families.
"Our farm business relationship stems back to things I have seen work and not work with the other families over the past 30 years," he said.
Jane works part time as a registered nurse at Austin Medical Center.
Their award is sponsored by AgStar Financial Services
Distinguished Service Winner
Minnesota native and Pork magazine editor, Marlys Miller, is the Minnesota Pork Industry's 2010 Distinguished Service winner.
She was selected for her dedication to accurately reporting and analyzing pork production trends and issues.
She was the very first Rice County Pork Queen and the 4-H Extension agent for two summers in Rock County. She has been with Pork magazine for 22 years as associate editor and editor. She has also served nearly four years at the National Pork Producers Council as editor of producer communications.
She grew up on a crop and livestock farm in Morristown and graduated from the University of Minnesota with degrees in agricultural journalism and animal science. She and her husband, Tony Smick, live in Madison, Wis., but her ties to Minnesota remain through family and her career.
"I've always had a soft spot for the Minnesota pork industry and Minnesota pork producers," she said. "They are innovative folks and I've always held them in high regard."
She understands the importance of speaking with a common voice to get results. Resources in the legislative arena, she says, should focus on a message that all pork producers can support -- feeding people -- rather than trying to impose a production method or type of product on all pork producers.
"That is how you make progress and keep from getting beat up," she said. "There are not enough people (in agriculture) to remain dissected. Agriculture needs to join together more and speak in support of what we do -- feed Americans and the world efficiently."
Her award is sponsored by Minnesota Farm Bureau.