Photo courtesy of Minnesota Pork Board Mike Boerboom (front row, left) sits on the Minnesota Pork Board. The board works on implementing programs that supports Minnesota pig farmers in the pork industry.

MARSHALL — The Minnesota Pork Board has a focus to continue ensuring sustainability and efficiency with a surplus of resources for the state’s pork producers. 

According to the pork board, Minnesota ranks second in value and number of market pigs raised in the country, with over 3,000 operating pig farms and a market of 16.73 million pigs in 2023. Marshall’s Mike Boerboom sits on the board and attests to the active work, uprisings and challenges currently taking place in the pork industry. 

“A few of our key areas of focus right now are our people, environments and animal welfare,” Boerboom said. “On the side of the environment, sustainability is top of mind.” 

On the topic of environment sustainability, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri pork producers were given a $20 million dollar grant in 2022 through USDA’s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities program to support climate-smart agriculture practices. 

“[We’re] working with pork producers to make sure that the things we’re doing are more sustainable, and making sure production is done in an efficient manner,” Boerboom said. 

Pig farmers have a desire to care for their pigs, but also for people and the planet as well, which is also detailed as a mission by the board. Sustainability plays into animal wellbeing, food safety and public health in addition to communities. 

This could be through monitoring the use of land, water, energy and reduced carbon emissions, which Minnesota has improved in all areas over the last several decades. 

Boerboom has been on the board for three years, come this winter, and works on the family Boerboom Ag Resources farm with his siblings Laurie and Matt. They oversee live operations of raising quality pork. 

The board overall manages funds given to pork producers, and works to provide value and resources through research, education and promotion as well. 

“The Minnesota Pork Board oversees both the checkoff and the non-checkoff side of the funds that are collected from pork producers,” Boerboom said. “Overseeing the promotion, trade, legislative issues, all of those items would fall either under Minnesota Pork Board or Minnesota pork producers association.” 

One of the current challenges in the industry is navigating the current and possible future changes regarding the passing of the Prop 12 law in California. 

“Basically, it was legislation that regulated the way sows could be housed in order to sell pork in the state of California, so that now has officially become law,” Boerboom said. “Our farm produces pork that’s compliant with that law, but the fear amongst pork producers is that other states could create regulations within each individual state, and that patchwork could create a nightmare in terms of all the different regulations that would have to be dealt with.” 

Since Prop 12 is a legislative matter, the board currently is working on educating producers on the meaning and possibilities. 

“More or less, [we are] educating and monitoring to understand what could be coming,” Boerboom said. “Making sure that the general public and people trust what we’re doing and that we’re producing pork in a safe and sustainable manner.” 

Beyond some ongoing struggles, the pork industry is also seeing good strides that will bring more opportunities and support for providers and consumers as well. 

“I think the wins that the pork industry has is that there’s been more and more funding towards foreign animal disease prevention, which has been good,” Boerboom said. “There’s also been a renewed push on domestic demand and some of the work that’s been done around ground pork demand, and how to feature ground pork versus ground beef has been pretty successful out into the marketplace.” 

Beyond his work on supporting the industry through his time on the board with the other members, Boerboom remains dedicated to his family business and operating the proper raising of pigs up into the market. 

“I think the work on the board is important, but it’s a very small subset of what I do,” Boerboom said. “Definitely my time on the farm is more critical, but ensuring the dollars that pork producers invest into the pork board are spent responsibly is also very important, too.”