Transitioning from tobacco production to pork production requires a big leap of faith for farmers. Some North Carolina farmers say if the move is done right, changing a farm’s main commodity offers both financial and experiential rewards.
“From Bright Leaf to Berkshires” is a North Carolina A&T (N.C. A&T) Cooperative Extension program helping some farmers make that leap.
N.C. A&T Extension swine specialist and program director Derrick Coble says the program’s goal is to provide tobacco farmers who have been financially impacted by tobacco policy and social changes with options to improve their farms’ profitability.
The program trains farmers to produce Berkshire pigs using hoop structure barns.
“Hoop house structures originated in Canada at the turn of the century,” Coble says in a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) release. “Inside the hoop house, the deep-bedded system filled with hay, sawdust or anything fibrous will absorb waste. These structures also have walls that can be pulled down so it can be managed as a cold barn during winter.”
Training Is Not Optional
Raising hogs today is much different than it used to be, says Caswell County farmer Santonio Bolton.
“It’s all about quality,” Bolton says in the release. “It’s all about biosecurity. It’s about learning so many different things that you don’t think of when you grow up doing it on a farm.”
Funding from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission has helped 18 farmers graduate from the Extension program. NIFA says they will receive assistance for the next two years to make sure all participants’ entry into pork production allows them to ‘bring home the bacon.’
According to Coble, the program has accounted for 25 jobs, $552,500 worth of pork products sold, and more than $22,000 in tax revenue for the state of North Carolina.
Growth Opportunities
NIFA program leader Solomon Haile says the N.C. A&T program illustrates how Extension programs can foster farmers’ willingness to expand their operations into new and profitable areas.
“Profitability is an ongoing challenge for farmers and even more so for ones with smaller operations,” Haile says in a release. “Extension programs, like the From Bright Leaf to Berkshires effort, open producers’ eyes to new opportunities and more importantly, they provide the hands-on training and support needed to turn those opportunities into real success stories.”
Aspiring hog farmers learn about production basics, such as nutrition and reproduction. They also dig into more advanced topics in waste management, welfare and behavior, diseases and niche marketing opportunities.
Sampson County farmer and returning N.C. A&T student, Kevin Chestnutt, says the program allows him to connect with other producers across the state.
“We were versed in artificial insemination, the science behind the diets that you feed pigs in order to maximize the production of pork that you’d get from an animal,” Chestnutt says in a release. “I was originally raised on a hog farm in Sampson County, and with this, I want to preserve the past and embrace the future at the same time.”
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