Category: Meet Our Customers

For more than thirty years, Dean Vroman has been raising crops, pigs and cattle in Minnesota. While equipment and facilities have been important, his most valuable investment has most likely been the relationships he’s built with farmers and industry professionals that have allowed his farming operation to grow and provide an opportunity for the next…

Generations of the Sturtevant family have raised crops and livestock on the same land in northwestern Illinois since the 1850s.  While the size and scope of the farm that Mark Sturtevant owns and operates with his father, brother and cousins, has changed over the years, their focus on continuous improvement, animal health and productivity has…

Pipestone Management works with many great farmers and Brad Greenway is no different. Brad Greenway, a pig farmer from Mitchell, South Dakota, is the recipient of the 2016 America’s Pig Farmer of the YearSM Award.  The award is designed to recognize a pig farmer who excels at raising pigs using the We CareSM ethical principles and connects…

For thirty years, Doug Pollema has focused on providing products and services to support family farmers around his business in northwest Iowa. Doug is a native of Hull, Iowa, and after college he started working as an outside salesman and livestock production representative for Hull Feed & Produce, an independent feed dealer that sold Wayne…

All farm employees met at four locations on May 10, 2016, with two sharing the role of presenting from their specific location.  Some of the presentations were specific to the barns for updated protocols and communication, while others were focused on the global and economic impact Pipestone Management has. One common theme each presenter had…

Focusing on sound business practices and management strategies has allowed the Schwerin family of Wood Lake, Minnesota, to build the foundation for a farm that provides opportunities for family members today and for generations to come. Dave Schwerin started farming with his father, Harlan Schwerin, in 1978.  They raised corn and soybeans and had a…

Bill Steenstra, field supervisor for Pipestone Management in Independence, Iowa, was named a Master Pork Partner by the Iowa Pork Producers Association at the Iowa Pork Congress Banquet in Des Moines in January 2016.  The Master Pork Partner Award recognizes pork production company employees who have demonstrated positive impacts in their production systems and a…

The Pipestone Management is celebrating 25 years since the first contract for the first Pipestone Management barn – Hiawatha Gilts — was signed.  There are lots of ways to talk about the growth of the business model, from number of barns and animals to number of employees and shareholders.  However, the best measurement is not…

The four finalists for America’s Pig Farmer of the year were announced, and Pipestone was excited to see a familiar face in the line-up!  The National Pork Board created the America’s Pig Farmer of the Year award to recognize a farmer who excels in raising pigs using the We Care principles and who can effectively…

25 years ago, Pipestone Management signed the first contract with their first managed sow barn, Hiawatha, located just northwest of Pipestone, Minnesota.  We started with 36 shareholders and the Hiawatha sow barn held 600 sows.  Today, Pipestone Management has over 450 shareholders, manages 50 sow barns across the Midwestern states, and represents over 200,000 sows…

At the heart of the Pipestone Management lies the core values:  Integrity, Caring, Commitment, Growth and Teamwork.  The core values have been the foundation of the System since its beginning 25 years ago. “This individual has a great impact developing employees.  He has always been willing to go the “extra mile” to ensure each and…

  Finding a balance between carrying on family farming traditions and adopting new practices for the future can be a challenge for many farmers and livestock producers.  Gary Wedewer is the fourth generation to live on the farm in northeast Iowa that was started in 1882 by his great grandfather.  Decisions that Gary has made…

Each year, the Pipestone Management recognizes an employee who has made a significant, innovative and sustainable impact on the Pipestone Management companies and its clients with the David Neuberger II Core Values Award.  The award honors individuals who exhibit the company’s core values  – Integrity, Caring, Commitment, Growth, and Teamwork – in all aspects of…

The Iowa Pork Producers Association recognized its 2013 class of Master Pork Producers during the Iowa Pork Congress, the 12 hog farmers were selected by their peers for excellence in pork production. The award winners were recognized for their expertise in their segments of the production cycle and understanding of current industry issues, quality assurance,…

Editor’s Note: The Pipestone Management and Pipestone Veterinary Clinic is growing and it will benefit all of us to understand the people and geography that make up this growth. Below is an interview that Swine Line conducted with Dr. Todd E. Williams, a principle in the Ottumwa Veterinarian Clinic which became a part of Pipestone…

Located at Kalona, IA, Claude Greiner not only owns shares in barns managed by the Ottumwa Veterinary Clinic—he built them. Raised on a farm near Keota, IA, Claude met Dr. Steve Menke when the veterinarian (then practicing in Richland, IA) visited the farm and diagnosed his first case of PGE. Claude was 16 at the…

A year or so before investing in his first jointly-owned farrowing unit, Dennis Fultz played a key role in changing a Minnesota law that would’ve prevented more than five people from joining together to build such a unit. “Minnesota has a strong tradition of small, independent people working together,” says Dennis, noting that the first…

The Craig and Karen Wulfekuhle family. Craig Wulfekuhle has raised pigs for 12 years since returning from a stint in agribusiness. He currently owns and manages a wean-to-finish business. He also is president of a local sow unit that supplies his operation with 1,800 pigs every four to five weeks. He finished and sold 18,000…

“One generation makes. The next generation uses. The third generation loses.” Chris Veldhuizen heard this warning countless times from his grandfather Christiaan, who came to America from the Netherlands and moved his family to the farm north of Edgerton, MN, in 1936. Chris Veldhuizen, born to Christiaan’s son Elmer and daughter-in-law Marie in 1949, spent…

Steve Vander Maten always had an interest in agriculture. When a door opened for him to start farming in 1985, he walked through it. Steve had just finished a course of studies in production agriculture at Jackson Vo-Tech when he had the opportunity to rent some land close to his parents’ farm, five miles east of…

Donnie Bloes (pronounced Blaze) sells feed and finishes pigs. He and his dad Jerry own B&B Farm Store, a retail business and feed mill in Jesup, Iowa, just east of Waterloo. Jerry has worked in this business for 50 years, starting right out of high school. He gradually bought into the business until it was…

The world is full of people who don’t enjoy their work, people who are doing the last thing they would have imagined when they were young. How those unhappy people must envy Eric Vander Plaats! Way back in elementary school he decided he liked working with pigs and he was one sad little kid when…