Fifth-Generation Farmer Revives a Family Tradition
.jpeg)
Fifth-Generation Farmer Revives a Family Tradition
Larry Banowetz has raised pigs on his family farm in eastern Iowa for 45 years. But the hog industry, or pork industry as it’s now referred to as, has changed dramatically over that time. Larry says that in the United States, it is almost impossible to have a profitable small business as an independent pork producer.
“On the commercial market, you just kept losing outlets to sell your pigs,” says Larry. “In the last 10 or 15 years, the number of outlets for the commercial producer to sell their pigs dramatically dropped. [Until] it was basically just Tyson.”
Yet Larry’s son Caleb has always had an interest in raising pigs. In 2018, Caleb took over the family’s hog farming work, becoming a fifth-generation Banowetz farmer as a junior in high school. He remembers facing the same hurdles his father warned him about.
“The market selling commercially small-scale was really bad economically for me,” says Caleb. “It was tough to find buying stations…So you would drive an hour and a half away, and the price was just terrible. I was losing money each year. I don’t know how many more years I could have kept going backwards on my money, trying to make it work.”
“Sometimes you get funny looks. ‘Oh my gosh, you’re raising pigs outside. What are you doing?’” says Caleb.
Raising pigs outdoors requires less equipment and lower input costs, Caleb explains, but also more labor. He prefers putting in the extra work to see his pigs outside. Unfortunately, after his first couple of years pig farming, Caleb hadn’t been able to show bankers he could profitably raise his animals on a small scale outdoors. Some refused to continue lending him money.
Then, in 2021, one of Caleb’s college professors introduced him to Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers who uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices. In exchange, they access a stable, premium market for their hogs.
Caleb was immediately drawn to the opportunity. Larry was supportive, but he remembers finding the concept hard to believe: “I was like, how’s this going to work out?”
Niman Ranch farmers raise pigs outdoors with deep bedding—the way the Banowetz family has always done—but they are also antibiotic-free. Transitioning away from antibiotics was a leap of faith for the family, Larry admits, and both he and Caleb were surprised by the result.
“I was around pigs for 45 years until he brought this Niman,” says Larry. “With antibiotic-free…you worry about death and loss. I have been amazed at how healthy [the pigs] are and how they’ve done…it’s really worked out well for Caleb.” They focus on raising their pigs in low stress environments and boosting the pigs’ immune systems naturally.
“Niman Ranch helps the farmer out by putting money in their pocket to help expand, whereas in the commercial market, you’re out there on your own. There’s nobody to help you,” says Caleb, who received scholarships from the Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation to pay his way through college as well as grants to get his operation off the ground.
Caleb is now expanding his farm to raise about 2,000 pigs. He can now show bankers a “flat line of income,” as opposed to the ups and downs typical of the commercial market. He recently purchased his own farm and plans to use his pig manure to fertilize crop fields and
build soil health.
Caleb and Larry hope to give the next generation an easier entry into farming, should they choose to continue the family legacy.
“You’re going to have a positive financial outcome here. That’s a big deal to provide some stability; it helps bring the younger generation back,” says Larry. “I wish I would have known about it, honestly. I would have been raising pigs for Niman Ranch for 20-plus years now, had I known.”
Views: 8
Comments
You must be logged in to comment.
Latest Articals
-
The Cowardice of Elite
The Cowardice of ElitesAt elite universities like Columbia and Stanford, student publications are starting to retract articles and anonymize authors, in particular those pieces “critical of Israel or Trump.” According to The Guardian, many writers are asking to have their work unpublished or leaving publications for “fear that their association with certain articles could jeopardize their safety or future career prospects.” Most takedown requests are coming from international students, but they “are coming from US citizens, too.” I have sympathy for the international students. The threat to them is real. A Turkish student at Tufts University, Rümeysa Öztürk, was recently seized and whisked to a prison (“detention facility”) in Louisiana because she co-authored an op-ed criticizing the university’s response to student demands around Israel-Palestine. Every international student in the country is at serious risk. The Trump administration has been open about the fact that it doesn’t believe in due process,...
-
How to Make Science Relevant to Everyone
How to Make Science Relevant to EveryoneSean carroll is one of the world's leading popular science writers whose bestselling books include The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself and Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime. His latest book is The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Quanta and Fields. In this interview, Carroll explains how our understanding of the world around us has developed over time, how much stranger the world is than our "commonsense" perceptions of it would indicate, and how laypeople with no background in the physical sciences can begin to grasp and appreciate the deepest hidden truths about the Universe. Carroll is an eloquent spokesperson for the view that a godless universe can still be a poetic and beautiful one and that there may be more connections between the political and the physical than first appears.Nathan J. Robinson It's...
-
The Fold launches collaboration with artist Rosie Sanders
The Fold launches collaboration with artist Rosie SandersBritish womenswear brand The Fold, known for its luxury tailoring and workwear collections, has launched a collaboration with botanical artist Rosie Sanders as it continues to grow its occasionwear offering.The limited-edition seven-piece capsule collection includes statement floral occasion looks, including dresses, separates and tailoring, featuring peonies and roses printed on luxurious silk and premium stretch cotton.Celebrated for her expressive watercolour paintings of flowers, British artist Sanders is recognised as one of the most prominent botanical artists of her generation and her work has been exhibited internationally.Commenting on the inspiration behind her work, Sanders told FashionUnited: “I've always loved macro photography; concentrating and enlarging something that's fairly small into something larger and having a different scale. You know, if you were an ant or something, it would look absolutely enormous, wouldn't it? So, it's getting into another world, I suppose. And, well, I’ve always...
-
Louis Vuitton launches home collection during Milan Design Week
Louis Vuitton launches home collection during Milan Design WeekFrench fashion house Louis Vuitton is broadening its lifestyle vision with a full home collection unveiled during Milan Design Week.In a statement, Louis Vuitton said the Home Collection marks a new chapter in the French luxury brand’s history and will showcase “a comprehensive world dedicated to the art of living,” featuring five product categories: furniture and lighting, decoration, including objects and textiles, tableware, gaming pieces, and Objets Nomades, where it invites designers to imagine experimental yet functional furniture pieces and design objects.The move into homeware and furniture is a direct descendant of the House’s historic creations, combining creativity and practicality, explains the fashion brand. Examples of this have included the 1885 Bed Trunk, the 1930 Stokowski Secretary Desk-Trunk in Monogram canvas and the Library Trunk, a cross between a piece of furniture and a travel object, as well as its Objets Nomades...
-
Swisspod’s expands US presence with a manufacturing and assembly facility
Swisspod’s expands US presence with a manufacturing and assembly facilityWith the expansion into Colorado Springs, Swisspod, a manufacturer of high-speed vehicles and subsystems for transportation assets, will create over 100 new jobs while advancing the region’s transportation infrastructure. The startup will receive several incentives to support its development.Swisspod, a Lausanne-based company, offers a solution to support the States’ strategy. Pioneering high-speed, emission-free Hyperloop for the transportation of assets, the company has developed patents for propulsion and levitation technologies that have the potential to transform current track-based transportation systems and extend into industries like aerospace, automotive, and more.Building on the success of their pilot project – the installation of the first 200 meters of its full-scale hyperloop infrastructure in Colorado – the company is expanding its North American presence with a new manufacturing and assembly facility in Colorado Springs. There, access to talent, supply chain connectivity, and proximity to partners, as...
-
Classical music at Coachella? LA Philharmonic makes desert debut
Classical music at Coachella? LA Philharmonic makes desert debutINDIO, California, April 12 (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Philharmonic led the charge into their first Coachella performance on Saturday with the "Ride of the Valkyries," helmed by Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, in his latest move to reach out to new audiences.The first major orchestra to grace the annual music and arts festival in the Southern California desert was joined by several vocalists, including jazz pop singer Laufey, who debuted her new song "Silver Lining", and Becky G with her pop song "Shower."Country singer Maren Morris arrived on the stage in a shimmering gold dress, delivering her gospel number "My Church" alongside a majority Black choir.Perhaps the most anticipated guest, German record producer and DJ Zedd, hopped on the piano and the choir, in yellow gowns, joined him for his popular 2012 song "Clarity."LL Cool J arrived in a yellow hoodie and...