Hord Family Farms is living proof of the old proverb, “From small beginnings come great things.”

When Robert Hord, the grandfather of current Hord Family Farm’s CEO and president, Pat, decided to start farming on his own, he was given 10 gilts by the farmer he had been working for.

From the humble beginnings of those 10 gilts in the 1940s, Hord Family Farms has grown over the years to today’s level of 28,000 sows. This growth hasn’t been just for the sake of growth. Each step has been a calculated move with one eye on the future, but also holding true to the past and the rich Hord family history. 

Matt Davis, Hord Family Farms chief operating officer, says his time with the Hord family can be measured by years or in sows. “We had 1,000 sows when I started, and now with the new sow farm coming online soon, the system will be at 28,000 sows. … When I started I don’t think Pat would have put a number of 28,000 sows by 2018, nor will a sow number be put on where the operation will be in five to 10 years. The philosophy from day one is that we’ll continue to grow, but not at the sacrifice of performance. Never lower our expectations or lower our production just to say we gained a few more sows.”

Earl Dotson has ridden the tumultuous roller coaster of American agriculture and the U.S. swine industry throughout his career — from high school ag teacher to adult farm management instructor to working with producers through environmental and animal welfare evaluations.

Dotson brought his education background to the National Pork Producers Council, and helped start the Pork Academy at World Pork Expo.

During the 1990s, the U.S. livestock industry was taking the brunt of regulations in the name of environmental protection, and Dotson was named the NPPC vice president of education, environment and research. “I inherited all the environmental problems people had,” he says. 

As a result of the pressure to improve the environment, the NPPC organized the On-Farm Assessment and Environmental Review, a program that went on farms to do environmental assessments. Further down the line, the NPPC thought it wise to create a private company to handle the environmental assessments. Environmental Management Solutions was formed with Dotson as the CEO. 

Environmental concerns grew into animal welfare concerns, and EMS became Validus to perform animal welfare audits of livestock facilities. Dotson has been there every step of the way, and continues to be involved with the current incarnation now known as K-Coe Isom.

U.S. hog producers should be glad Larry Jacobson did not pursue his intended electrical engineering degree when he was an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s. Not that he couldn’t have made great contributions in that field, but his work as an agricultural engineer changed the way people think about odor and outdoor air quality.

Because of the hog industry expansion and consolidation of the 1980s, the Minnesota countryside was setting up as a battleground of sorts, as county and township boards were seeking expertise into the matter while they attempted to referee battles between hog producers and their neighbors. Jacobson and his team at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, set out to build a model to find out just how much odor was being emitted by livestock facilities.

The model Jacobson’s team created would become known as the OFFSET (Odor From Feedlot Setback Estimation Tool) model; it remains in use today, helping producers calm battles between themselves and the public.

Jacobson says the OFFSET model was widely accepted immediately, and his department remained neutral, “because we understood both sides of the issue. From the pork producer side, they were limited because it was hard to find building sites that were located away from residences where they weren’t affecting neighbors, and most of the pork producers want to be good neighbors. They wanted to have it better smelling themselves.”