The Maschhoffs: Still Growing …

Even today at the age of 80, father Wayne Maschhoff still spends time on the farm, running errands and watching the family farm business grow and occasionally offering advice.
The Maschhoff family has been farming in the Carlyle, IL. area since the mid-1850s, which is run nowadays by Wayne's sons Ken and Dave. After university they went on to work on the family farm and in 1979 whilst they were still in their late teens and early twenties were made 50-50 partners with their parents and began to effectively run the business, with their wives looking after the records and accounts. In 1991 the two brothers bought out their parents. Wayne Maschhoff was a forward thinking man and happy to step aside. "I saw too many farm boys stifled by their fathers. I wanted my boys to keep growing."
Key words to better understand the Maschhoffs could be, 'traditional', 'Mid-West' and 'values. Smaller family farms in this area of the United States have found out in the past that keeping the pig business independently going often has been difficult, as major investments are needed to stay in business in an environment where for example diseases increasingly impacted on profits. As a Maschhoff contract farm, families can act as rearers or finishers, with company veterinarians assisting and advising.
The Maschhoffs have seen an amazing increase in the size of their operation such that the business is now the third largest swine operation in the USA, with key decisions being made by Ken Maschhoff; Dr Bradley Wolter, COO; and Jason Logsdon, CFO.

Motto
The company's motto is Progressive farming, family style and the word "family" is key to the ethos of the Maschhoffs. The company's core values indicate why the business has done so well. In summary, these are;
• Employees and production partners are considered to be most important assets.
• Belief in family farm, ensuring animal well-being and environmental concern
• Dedication to innovation and continued progress
• Value to the relationship with customers

Size
Ken Maschhoff is the company's president and CEO. He says, "We now have 192,000 sows in the company and have become one of the larger private companies in the US pork industry – we do not anticipate going public. We have grown through acquisition – buying out Minnesota based Land O'Lakes' 60,000 sows in 2005, which doubled the size of the company overnight.
"Earlier last year we had another large addition, acquiring 50,000 sows from Nebraska Pork Partners. We would like to continue to grow. Most of our production is located Midwestern states of the US, but states as Oklahoma have been attractive in the past as they have fewer hogs and therefore disease is less of a problem.
"We are marketing and harvesting 3.5 million slaughter pigs and 0.5 million feeder pigs annually and Cargill Meat solutions, Hormel Foods and Farmland are key markets to us."
Being the third-largest swine producer in the USA, a foreign outlook is important. Ken Maschhoff says, "There is a world demand for protein and the USA is the most cost competitive in producing pork – we have the cheapest corn and soya plus the best national infra-structure.
"The USA can compete successfully with Canada and Brazil on a global basis because farmers have access to capital. Brazil has many attractions but our family has focused on US production at this point.
"Exports are vital for our industry – currently about 20-25 per cent of production – and we realize that we must keep our export markets open."
The Maschhoffs use both pen and stall gestation housing designs. They continue to study and research housing systems with the goal of developing a sound understanding of their impact on animal welfare and the appropriate stockmanship required with various housing systems.
Maschhoff feels the size and scale of the systems in the U.S. are different from many in Europe and that stockmanship must be altered to handle sows in large groups with consideration for both the sow and the stockman.

Headquarters
Dr. Bradley Wolter is the Maschhoffs' COO, operating out of the company's 1,900 m2 headquarters. He is one of several graduates from the University of Illinois that are on the company payroll.
"The Maschhoffs have a close relationship with the university and in particular with swine specialist Dr Mike Ellis," commented Wolter.
"We have developed a joint programme whereby we can provide internships on our farms and the students can use our pigs and facilities for their MS and PhD projects. The research findings and real world experience provide an 'innovation platform' that can be used by the company. The programme also offers potential post-graduate employment opportunities. By spending time doing research on our farms and with our staff both parties get to know a lot about each other which builds good relationships."
The recession in the United States has been tough. However, the Maschhoffs take a conservative approach to managing risk and has in fact used hedging for many years, to help keep the company in the black. A team of two fulltime employees focus on risk management of all key production inputs as well as hog sales. The swine industry has always been cyclical and is likely to continue that way, with commodity prices continuing to increase.
Wolter continues, "We must never lose sight of the fact that the welfare of the animals in our care is paramount. Incentives are important and hence we have competitions and awards for our producers and caretakers as this encourages friendly rivalry. The Maschhoffs are all about people with a passion for raising pigs."
Feed is the major cost of any pig business and the Maschhoffs produce 70 per cent of its own feed in five feed mills, owned or leased, with three members of staff purchasing ingredients on a full time basis. Production is 'on demand' and, 14 different commercial diets are produced, from breeders through to finishers. The remaining 30 per cent of feed is brought in, with quarterly audits being carried out on these mills.

Animal care division
The animal care division is a key sector of the company and Steve Quick holds the position of the division's senior vice president, having joined the company in 1979. It's vital that as a company grows the 'checks and balances' grow at the same rate', Quick says.
"History is littered with companies that have expanded too quickly and too fast, where expenditure has exceeded income with disastrous consequences. For optimum productivity we highlight the 'Big Four'; feed, water, air and animal care. We continue to focus on sound stockmanship and good animal welfare practices to ensure pigs are treated and handled correctly."
Production guides have been in place for about six years. These are considered important and are detailed. To quote one example, there is a guide explaining how a feeder should be maintained and adjusted to ensure it dispenses adequate feed without wastage.
In terms of quality control, audits and assessments are carried out on a regular basis, whereby the Maschhoffs have a layered approach with a field adviser carrying out regular checks at each site. Major audits are carried out every few years. Looking to the future, the Maschhoffs are looking to develop ISO – like animal care quality management programmes."

The Maschhoffs –key data
The Maschhoffs owns 100 per cent of pigs. Production partners provide the buildings and daily animal care, the Maschhoffs provides pigs and feed.
• Pig farms can be found in various states throughout the USA. The home farm is located in Carlyle, Illinois. This one houses 12,000 sows and 560 sows farrow here per week. In total, 6,000 piglets are weaned every week. The facility has 11 slurry lagoons, with a total 114,000 m3 capacity. Other farms are located in Illinois, Indiania, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, Georgia and Alabama.
• Feed mills, as of 2010 can be found in three main locations. Carlyle, IL (company headquarters) produces 5,000 tonnes/week and can produce 150 different rations. Other operations are in Buckeye, IA (5,000 tonnes/week) and in Griggsville, IL (5,000 tonnes/week).
• A research facility, called Georgia, is located in New Minden, IL. It consists of a field trials facility with 60 pens each containing 30 pigs. The operation is used for testing before implementing findings commercially. The site is a tunnel ventilated, curtain sided facility. Areas researched are nutrition, management, environment, genetics, all in conjunction with University of Illinois.
• Near the company's headquarters, Riverview genetics can be found, spread out over two isolation sheds with 75 pens each. Here, 300 boars are kept, collected weekly in four rooms. Every day, 2,200 doses of semen are sent via an underground vacuum tube system to lab after collection. Four PIC lines are used. Two more boar studs can be found in Missouri.
The Maschhoffs' effluent storage
Manure is stored in deep concrete pits and lagoons, providing long-term storage so that manure can be applied to crop land after harvest or prior to spring planting. Manure applied must balance nutrient needs of the relevant crops, in accordance with state legislation. Application is by dragline injection and centre pivot irrigation. Injection equipment incorporates GPS guidance systems and emergency shut offs. The company has three dragline crews, with each crew applying about 132,000 m3 of effluent annually. •
— By Norman Crabtree