Livin’ high on the hog

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Joe Popplewell, of Seaboard Foods, addresses the Downtown Noon AMBUCS about the pork industry in Oklahoma. (Staff Photo by BILLY HEFTON)

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January 30, 2010

Pork industry is big in Sooner State

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle The Enid News and Eagle Sat Jan 30, 2010, 07:01 PM CST

Popplewell made his comments during a speech Wednesday at Downtown Enid AMBUCS as part of the pork industry’s Opera-tion Main Street.

Popplewell, of Hennessey, said Seaboard is the third-largest pork producer in the world, producing 4.5 million pigs a year.

An Oklahoma agricultural economist has predicted pork will be one of the few industries to make large-scale investments in the state’s economy over the next year.

The economist, Steve Meyer, predicted the investments at $2 billion.

“The pork industry has changed from the way it was formerly done,” Popplewell said.

Today, farmers specialize, whereas previously they did almost everything. Pigs are now raised in barns because it is healthier for them, and the animals also are leaner, Popplewell said.

“The United States has the cheapest pork production in the world,” he said.

Pigs are kept in separate barns based on what is happening. There are separate barns for breeding, birthing, nurseries and growing to market weight, he said.

A typical pork facility, such as the one in Hennessey, will produce 21 direct new jobs, 19 indirect jobs and $41 million in revenue, plus tax revenues.

“And, we no longer claim they don’t smell; they do smell,” he said.

The odor of a pork farm is reduced by the use of chemicals and the way the animals are grown, but the odor cannot be totally eliminated, he said.

“Pigs do stink. We try to mitigate the odor, but nothing completely eliminates it,” he said.

Changes Americans have made in their diet have sparked the transition in the United States to leaner types of meat, he said.

Popplewell said Americans have changed their diet because of an awareness of the dangers of fatty foods. When that transition began, the sale of chicken soared because chicken breasts are leaner. However, pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world, he said, and is 30 percent leaner than it was in the 1980s. Producers also use 27 percent less saturated fats.

Pork producers have more than $1 billion in fixed assets in Oklahoma and are the second-largest agriculture commodity in the state, he said. Seaboard has the eighth-largest number of hogs and pigs and is fifth in breeding herds.

Seaboard has between 75 and 80 farms in the state, including large farms of about 2,500 sows to average-sized farms of about 500 sows. A 500-sow farm can be started on 80 to 160 acres of land.

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Livin’ high on the hog

Pork industry is big in Sooner State

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