Stitzels honored for service to pork industry

SHANNON, Ill. — If you’re going to invite Darrell and Laurie Stitzel to a backyard barbecue, fire up that grill. But Laurie will be bringing the potato salad.

“It’s hard to beat a pork chop off the grill, with homemade potato salad and baked beans,” Darrell said.

When it comes to the grill, Stitzel and some of his fellow pork producers in Carroll County continue to utilize it as the best way to connect to consumers and the public.

“I’ve worked with a couple other pork producers in the county. We’ve done some cookouts. We’re fortunate to have an updated cooker and we added some technology to it. There’s still nothing better than serving your product to the people. That is the original promotion, right there,” he said.

The Stitzels, of Shannon, are the Illinois Pork Producers Association 2022 Family of the Year.

Cooking and serving pork, from local events to traveling nationally to promote pork through serving it, the Stitzels have made a name for themselves in the Illinois pork producer community.

“Darrell and Laurie have cooked and served many meals in their local community and with the Carroll County Pork Producers. Laurie has served many meals out of her home for local events and district meetings. Darrell and Laurie both helped cook and serve pork in Dallas, Texas, for Operation Snowball,” said Brent and Kathy Scholl, of Polo, fellow pork producers who nominated the Stitzels for the IPPA award.

“It doesn’t get much better than Laurie’s Ham Balls. They deserve an award unto themselves,” said Carrie Pollard, an IPPA board member from Winnebago.

The Stitzels have been active not just in raising pigs, but in promoting the industry and the product and working to make and keep Illinois a welcoming place for livestock farming in general and pig farming in particular.

With over 30 years in the industry, Stitzel said he looks back at himself as one of the new kids on the IPPA block and said he’s happy to see a new generation of leaders stepping up in the IPPA.

He started at the county level, going to Carroll County Pork Producer meetings with his dad, Dan.

In 2001, Stitzel was elected to the IPPA Board of Directors. He was elected president in 2005.

“When I was on the board, I looked around the room and I didn’t know a lot of those people. They looked at me as the young one. Now, there is a new generation of farmers and pork producers who are taking the lead in the production side and the business side of it,” he said.

The Stitzel family has been in the pig business in northwest Illinois for over 60 years.

Today, Darrell and Laurie have a 10,000-head wean-to-finish farm and they farm 450 acres of corn. Darrell and Laurie operate the farm with the help of Darrell’s cousin, Nathan Kluck.

Laurie recently retired from a 30-year career as the owner and operator of Headquarters, a beauty salon in Shannon. Laurie is a member of the Shannon Lion’s Club.

Darrell, along with Brent Scholl and others, was active at the state government level during his tenure on the IPPA board, making regular visits to Springfield to talk to state legislators and hosting some legislators on farms.

Stitzel said he thinks that work has helped when it comes to keeping the state friendly to livestock production.

“On the state side, at least for agriculture, over the last several years, it’s been fairly friendly. We haven’t had too many issues or legislation. I think the work and the image campaign we started years ago for the industry and specifically the pork industry has helped on the legislative side. We have been trying to get our story out there. We have been trying to tell people what kind of operations we have and what we do. It’s more of an open-door policy,” he said.

Stitzel also credits those who have taken themselves and their farms onto social media platforms to show and tell the public what happens inside livestock barns.

“The farmers who have embraced social media have done a lot to tell our story to a lot of people, one person at a time, but with a million views. It’s a situation where you are telling your story to one person, but a million people end up seeing it and that has really helped. The people who are doing that are fantastic and I sure am proud of them. They have made it easier for those of us who aren’t tech savvy,” he said.

Stitzel graduated from the University of Illinois in 1990 with a degree in ag economics. He returned home to farm with his father.

In 1990, animal welfare was just starting to gain headlines. Phrases like “carbon footprint” were virtually unknown in livestock agriculture.

Along with the consolidation that has occurred in the U.S. and Illinois pork industry in the last three decades, a focus on animal welfare and the more recent emphasis on and interest in carbon footprints of livestock production are the biggest changes Stitzel said he’s seen.

“When I started farming in 1990, animal rights and animal welfare were issues on the radar for the industry and I knew those would probably become bigger issues. If you would have told me in 1990 that I would have to answer questions about my farm’s carbon footprint, we didn’t even know what those two words together meant and now that’s a buzzword and we are talking about sustainability and carbon footprints,” he said.

Stitzel added one more change to that list — the expansion of export markets for U.S. pork.

“It used to be in the low single digits and now it’s up around 30%. That has been a great help and a huge achievement,” he said.

Keeping those export markets open — and consequently keeping foreign animal diseases out of the U.S. swine herd and generally keeping his pigs healthy are the top priorities for Stitzel.

“There are always going to be production disease challenges. When you wake up and start your day, those decisions are still what you confront first, even though there are bigger challenges out there. And long term, it’s just keeping those export markets open and keeping the domestic demand up for our pork,” he said.

Stitzel has stepped away from the leadership of IPPA, but he remains active in county government, serving as the Cherry Grove-Shannon Township supervisor. He has been the township supervisor for six years and previously served for 15 years as a township trustee.

He is the second generation to serve in township government, following his father, who served as township trustee.

“It’s a fun side job. Township government is definitely grassroots-level government and it’s a nice diversion from the farm,” Stitzel said.