Hoogland Named Chief Production Officer at Iowa Select Farms

Aug 07, 2023

Iowa Select Farms announced Marlin Hoogland, DVM, as its new chief production officer. Hoogland will lead all production areas in this role as of Aug. 17, including gene transfer centers, multiplication, gilt development, sow production, wean-to-finish operations, research, nutrition, feed services and production well-being, the company said in a release.

Iowa Select Farms, the largest pork producer in Iowa, has 242,000 sows and annually produces over 1.5 billion pounds of pork.

Hoogland previously served as the vice president of research, nutrition and business innovation at Smithfield Foods. Before taking on the role of vice president, he was the lead veterinarian for over 12 years and oversaw veterinary services for the Midwest region.

A distinguished alumnus of Iowa State University, Hoogland graduated with his DVM from Iowa State University in 2005 and the University of Illinois' Executive Veterinary Program in 2009.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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