Like many American families, we have a love affair with the Crock-Pot. Our love for the Crock-Pot grew even larger this year when we discovered Reynolds’ Slow Cooker Liners. Toss a liner in there and cleanup is an absolute cinch. Anyone who’s scrubbed on a stoneware pot knows that’s a pretty big deal. Anyhow, a couple weeks ago, I was perusing the aisles of the Illinois Pork Producer Associations’ Pork Expo when I stumbled on a cooking pamphlet, made possible…

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This past weekend, the buzz around Iowa or I should say that smell around town was bacon. The 6th Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival kicked off this weekend in Des Moines, which has now become the largest bacon showcase in the world. Other events scheduled included lectures about bacon and an eating competition. The festival was preceded earlier in the week with a bacon queen pageant and a pig pardon by Gov. Terry Branstad. The annual event, which sold out 8,000 tickets in less than four…

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The January/February copy of Ohio Pork Line, the publication of the Ohio Pork Producers Council, just arrived. It has the most beautiful photo of a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich you have ever seen.  OK it’s lunchtime for me and I need to get this written before I can get something to eat. And right now I am leaning towards a BLT. I don’t see a caption telling who took the photo, probably came from the National Pork Producers Council as part of the overall effort to…

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Last week, I attended the Illinois Pork Producers visioning session. Among lots of discussion on feed supply (i.e., will there be any?) and gestation stalls and HSUS, they shared this video. It was released last week, only then it featured Costco. This week, the link is updated and takes you to the same video, but with Wal-Mart's name instead of Costco's. According to the Associated Press, Mercy for Animals had been preparing to release the video, which was shot in a sow barn at Minnesota-based…

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I couldn't fit into our livestock scales designed for pigs and sheep, or I would have. The first three animals we weighed the other day all weighed 170 pounds, and they all looked bigger than that. "Weigh yourself, dad," my daughter said,. "You weigh more than 170 pounds. We'll know if it's working or not." Thanks a lot Kayla. If I could have fit inside it, I would have, because by then I figured out likely something was wrong, and it would be nice to say I weighed 170 pounds again on a scale…

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I’ve had pork prepared about every way I can imagine it – barbequed, pulled, smothered with mushroom sauce, grilled, on a stick. They are all umm umm good. But I’ve never had pork with ice cream. Not pork and then big dish of ice cream as a dessert, but pork in ice cream. Until tonight. I was at the South Dakota Pork Producers Council's Taste of Elegance in Sioux Falls. Pork with ice cream was one of the dishes offered by one of the professional chefs competing in the…

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It’s exciting times for Ohio pork producers, according to Todd Stickley, president of the Ohio Pork Producers Council. We had a chance to sit with Todd at the Ohio Pork Congress last week and he said the mood of the pork industry is very positive. Stickley is also director of pork finishing and development for Kalmbach Swine Management, LLC. Ohio Farmer: You say pork producers are in a pretty good mood. Why? Stickley: There are many reasons to be optimistic about our pork industry. As…

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In the last issue of Indiana Prairie Farmer we promised an update on 4-H pig and lamb farrowings in the Web Exclusive once the February issue reaches mailboxes around Feb 1. You will still see that exclusive. Some have found lambs slow to arrive- the heat last summer didn’t make for efficient cycling and breeding. Several pigs have been pulled in 4-H herds- that’s nothing new with the heavier muscling most judges seek in gilts today. Yet one judge placed a gilt last in a show last…

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Hogs were a mainstay on farms around our part of the state for decades. When Nebraska Pork Producers Association, which celebrated 50 years of existence recently, was formed, a good share of membership came from northeast Nebraska, I’m sure. Sadly, many family farmers have given up raising hogs, because of volatile prices, extreme regulatory pressure and very small profit margins. We grudgingly gave up raising hogs on our place in 2005, but I could write a book about all of the antics…

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I realized I’d moved fully into adulthood when I hosted our first family barbecue. For some reason, feeding your grandparents, parents and multiple aunts, uncles and cousins conveys a sense of maturity that surpasses even a college degree or first job. In the days leading up to the big event, my wife and I brainstormed what we were going to prepare for everyone. Since it was a Labor Day event, grilling was a no-brainer. Still being a young couple, we decided on a cheap, yet easy, meal…

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