Jan. 26, 2017
Contact:
Drew Mogler, Producer Education Director
(800) 372-7675,
For Immediate Release!
Washington County’s Brennemans are Iowa’s 2016 Pork All-Americans
(CLIVE, Iowa) — The Iowa Pork Producers Association’s 2016 Pork All-American Award has been presented to a husband and wife team from Washington County.
Tim and Erin Brenneman received the prestigious award last night during the 45th annual Iowa Pork Congress Banquet in Des Moines. The Pork All American award is the highest honor an individual Iowa pig farmer can receive from IPPA. A producer must be under the age of 40 and a Master Pork Producer to be eligible.
TJAC Pork is part of the family owned and operated Brenneman Pork farrow- to-finish operation. The Brennemans have 29,000 sows and finish more than 620,000-head annually.
Brenneman Pork consists of the 8,000-sow family farm in Iowa, with the remaining sows in Missouri. Pigs are finished using family owned farms and others owned by more than 40 contract growers. The family believes in three-site production and uses farrowing, nursery and finishing facilities, many of which are solar powered. Most sow barns are filtered and a state-of-the-art truck wash greatly aids in farm biosecurity. The feed comes from the family owned mill that was upgraded in 2005 to its current capacity of more than 700 tons/day.
Tim is head of live production, helping to oversee nursery and finishing operations, as well as managing the field personnel for finishing. He also oversees all scheduling for the farms and works closely with the truckers and packers to ensure all loads are scheduled appropriately.
Tim and Erin recently constructed 7,500 finishing spaces and 4,800 nursery spaces all for research purposes. They are firm believers in doing different testing to maximize the pig’s potential to see what they are doing right and expose areas where they can improve. Trials in the barns range from various management practices such as feeder space and ventilation to stocking density and general nutrition.
Erin specializes in day-one pig care. She ensures that all sow farm workers are properly trained to ensure each pig is warm, dry and full of milk. Recently, she has become more involved with ensuring feeder pigs are getting off to a good start once they arrive at the finishing barn. Erin also manages the data entry portion for each sow farm and oversees public relations and education. She blogs with the Pork Network and manages the Brenneman Pork, Inc., Facebook page and Twitter accounts. She travels across the country connecting farmers with consumers.
The Brennemans are active in the local Catholic community and frequently assist with school events, hosting farm visits and donating pork. Both Tim and Erin are active members of the Washington County Pork Producers Board and are involved in many promotions and other pork-related events.
Tim and Erin are graduates of Iowa State University, graduating in 2004 in ag studies and animal science, respectively. Tim is a native of Washington County and Erin is a Chicago-area native. They have two children.
The IPPA Pork All-American award was established in 1970 to honor young producers who have established themselves as community leaders and successful and dedicated businesspersons.
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