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Missouri family adapts into hog production

Matt Stubblefield is adamant about the fact that he is a cattleman, not a hog farmer. But with generations of pork producers in his family, raising hogs was just a part of the farm operation.

“The hog barn on my father-in-law’s property was built by his grandpa in the 1950’s or ‘60’s,” said Matt’s wife, Rockael.

Like many farming operations in the mid- to late-1900’s, raising a few feeder pigs was standard for the Cuba, Missouri family. Matt’s great-great-grandpa would feed out about 1,000 head each year, according to his dad, Drew. Eventually, the Stubblefields started raising their own pigs and moved their sows to a pasture setting.

Going in and out of the hog business a few times, the family re-entered the business in the late 1990’s when Drew bought a gilt at the 4-H youth auction and bred her to a neighbor’s Poland China boar. Hogs have resided on the operation ever since.

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These Pigs Keep Breaking Everything

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We found something in bin 12 that no pig farmer ever wants to see. Feed caked up solid in the boot, and when that line is feeding thousands of hogs, you fix it today, not tomorrow. That is just where the day starts. The pigs worked half the gates loose again, so Tork and I are going pen to pen putting them back together. Then it is the barn door repair, rebuilding the wash room, and a walk through a freshly washed barn getting ready for the next group. Pig farming is fixing the same things over and over and keeping the barns running no matter what.