In 1973, I found myself, just barely out of college, managing a livestock market in Woodbury, TN. The facility, owned by Mid-State Producers, was managed by Tennessee Livestock Producers, a service company of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. The market eventually became one of the largest feeder pig sales in all of Tennessee. I must admit the success of the market was not due to my management skills. It was simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
In those days, many a part-time farmer had a wooded lot or shed where he raised a few feeder pigs. My market drew customers from as far away as Chattanooga. Many would arrive at the market as early as 2:00AM in order to get their pigs unloaded and make it back home in time to go to work at their regular jobs. Fortunately, I had in my employment a crusty, old fox hunter named Ben Davenport, who, fresh off a fox hunt would arrive at the market in the wee hours of the morning to start checking farmers in.
Before the 70’s had passed, Tennessee had become the 5th largest feeder pig producing state in the nation, shipping over 1,000,000 feeder pigs per year.
Remember the adage from the wisdom of the ages: “And it came to pass?” Well, it did.
A few years back, I made speaking presentations on succeeding Tuesdays for The Mascahhaffs, LLC, a family hog operation based in Carlyle, IL. The Maschhaff’s bill their company as “Progressive farming…family style.” Theirs is quite an operation.
I drove up on each Monday and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn just outside of East St. Louis in O’Fallon, Il. On an interesting note, when I drove over to Carlyle, I passed through Lebanon…Illinois, and when I arrived in Carlyle, I saw a road sign that read, “Nashville 20 miles.” That was Nashville, IL, of course.
When I arrived at the Maschhoff’s central office on the first Tuesday, I was in for a treat. I found that brothers Ken and Dave, fresh out of college in the late 1970’s; borrowed $3500 from an uncle and bought a half interest in their parent’s hog operation to get their start. They quickly expanded from 150 to 700 sows. Today, the Maschhoffs manage 200,000 sows. (That’s not a misprint.) That’s right -200,000! In a given year, they market through their network of producers 5.45 million market hogs. The Maschhoffs are the 5th largest pork producers in the U.S.
And, interestingly, they have managed to maintain a “family feel” in their vast operation. It was most refreshing to spend time with their management team.
In looking further back into their family history, I was amused to find the generation of brothers before Ken and Dave once expanded their operation by purchasing a ton truck which allowed them to haul 23 market hogs at one time.
Today, the Maschhoffs have an entire department which is exclusively devoted to washing and sanitizing the trailers which haul pigs to market.
The Maschhoffs take pride in the fact their operation provides pork for 16,000,000 consumers.
I well remember when our neighbors use to get together at “hog killin’ time.” As I young boy I was fascinated to see knives being sharpened, wash tubs being cleaned, scalding boxes being set, and fires prepared. It seemed like every neighbor who showed up to help brought a special skill to the event. I especially remember my mother grinding and “working up” sausage on the kitchen table. All told, we rarely processed more than a half-dozen hogs. That’s a long way from 5.45 million!
Bob Dylan was right when he sang, “the times, they are a’ changin’.”
Copyright 2026 by Jack McCall
