How An Iowa Pork Producer Is Growing His Operation From the Inside Out

A new idea has been brewing in Chet Mogler’s mind at Pig Hill Farms in northwest Iowa.

“2023 was a really rough year,” Mogler says. “It made us do a gut check. What are we in this business for? Where do we need to trim things up? What can we do to get better?”

He’s quick to point out that bigger wasn’t better in 2023. It just meant bigger losses.

“Growth does not always mean getting bigger – it might mean diversification, it might mean professionalizing or doing things better,” Mogler says.

One of the areas Pig Hill Farm is seeking to improve right now is biosecurity.

“Biosecurity is always top of mind around here,” Mogler says. “Disease can take you out. To not be focused on it is foolish.”

Mogler thinks about biosecurity in three buckets: local disease risk, whatever he’s putting up with on his own farm and foreign animal disease. After participating in a foreign animal disease tabletop exercise last summer, he walked away more scared than ever – but also more motivated than ever to make biosecurity protocols even stronger in their operation.

“What I learned at that tabletop blew my mind,” Mogler says. “If you have a 2,400 head finisher that’s market ready, and you have to euthanize and compost those animals on site, it will take about 30 semi loads of carbon to properly compost that to USDA specs for qualification for indemnity.”

That number stunned Mogler.