By MEGGIE. I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

WABASH, Ind. — Liberty Swine Farms, a 900-sow, farrow-to-finish pork operation, owned by Randy Curless and family of Wabash, Ind. recently hosted a community event in a effort to share the story of modern pork production.

“My big thing is educating the non-farm consumer, making them aware of what we do here and how my family makes a living, we are the ones who know best how to raise hogs,” explained Curless.
“I think it’s extremely important to invite folks in for these types of community events, we’re getting three to four generations away from the farm. This generation doesn’t understand why farms are so large, why animals are in crates. This is our opportunity to debunk some myths and share our story.”

While many may believe modern farm families live a guarded lifestyle, Curless believes that an open door policy and transparency is key to his farm’s lasting success in the community. The President’s Pignic hosted by the Curless family on June 24 was no different, as he invited nearly 80 community officials, neighbors and guests to a virtual tour of his highly biosecure operation. The event sponsored by the Indiana Pork Producers’ Assoc. is hosted every year by the reigning IPPA president.

Opening the event with a fitting BBQ pork dinner, Curless, a seventh generation pork producer introduced his family and son, who then introduced the Liberty Swine Farms staff.

Curless presented an in-depth presentation of his family’s hog operation, including biosecurity protocols, genetics, facility arrangements, manure management, environmental stewardship and community involvement.

In addition, to operating the farrow-to-finish operation since 1992, raising nearly 22,000 pigs per year, Curless also operates two contract finishers and serves as a gilt-multiplication unit for Whiteshire-Hamroc, LLC providing their “Whiteshire E-L” F-1 gilt lines.

The No. 1 goal of Liberty Swine Farms is biosecurity surrounding the farm’s gilt multiplication unit.

“Because we raise parent stock for Whiteshire-Hamroc, we use minimum drugs, we want our pigs to be clean. Our biggest defense against disease is biosecurity,” said Curless, who added that Liberty is a closed herd, no animals are brought in and all mating is done artificially.

Also, Curless pointed to the success of the operation through the work of the farm’s employees. “The employees are the lifeline of our business, that’s where it all starts,” he said, adding that seven full-time workers operate the Liberty unit. “We breed 50 females a week, we run 86 percent pregnant, our intention is to farrow (birth) 43 sows a week, although we do make some seasonal adjustments.”

Recently, Curless was honored at the Indiana Livestock Forum in Indianapolis, Ind. with a “Beyond the Fence” award for his outstanding community involvement and efforts to reach out to his neighbors. One way Curless strives to communicate with neighbors and educate consumers is through the social media forum including Facebook and Twitter. Curless spends an average of one to two hours a day managing and updating his Facebook site with photos of his operation and communicating with consumers and colleagues on Twitter.

“We want to clone Randy, and create an arsenal for our posse in the single goal to communicate the real story of modern pork production,” said Michael Platt, executive director of Indiana Pork. “He is a poster child of how to do it right, including his neighbor relations, his ability to tell his story to others in an easy-to-understand format and definitely his social media work,” said Platt.
For more details, visit the Indiana Pork website at www.indianapork.com