Growing the family legacy one quality pig at a time.
By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Images courtesy of Sis-Bro, Inc.
First things first: Clare Schilling, 38, and Drew Schilling, 34, are siblings - not a married couple.
To clear up the confusion amongst its customer base, the co-owners playfully renamed the family’s farming operation as Sis-Bro, Inc.
Located in New Athens, IL, just southeast of St. Louis, Sis-Bro provides 280,000+ high-quality ISO weans to sell to other producers across the Midwest and to farmers who will grow them to market size. They finish a very small number of hogs through a contract grower, but are looking to expand that venture as well.
To supplement continuous operation, the farm holds back 7,000 gilts to be utilized as future breeding stock.
Rearing weans have been part of the family business since 1955, when the duo’s grandfather was given a pregnant sow as a wedding gift from his godfather. “That was the start of our hog operation,” explained Clare Schilling.
“Our dad and uncle expanded through the years, running the company under the L&A Schilling name,” stated the third-generation farmer, Schilling, adding that she and her brother took over in 2007, changing its name in January of 2016 to its current confusion-free moniker.
“We had worked on the farm all through our childhood and learned the production side of the business working alongside the company’s non-family employees as we grew up,” she said.
Sis-Bro runs two breed to wean sow barns - the Sisbro barn with 6,200 sows; and the CD BELL (an acronym consisting of the first letter of everyone’s name in the family: Clare, Drew, Beth, Emile, Ludger and Lindsey) housing 5,200 sow.
To read the Full Article as it appeared in our Benchmark swine magazine, click HERE.