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Illinois swine farmer awarded for animal care practices

The Illinois Pork Producers Association created a new Animal Caregiver Award this year to highlight exceptional work ethic and caregiving practices.

The first recipient of the award is Joshua Matli who is the manager of Borgic Farms in Nokomis, Illinois, a 10,000 head breed to wean sow farm. He tells Brownfield over the years farmers have gotten a “bad rap” about how they treat their livestock.

“We do not hurt them or harm them by any means and we do trainings to teach people how to care for them properly so everybody is on the same page and we get the same results.”

He says some consumers may feel like large hog operations are hiding something because biosecurity practices prevent people from coming in easily.

“We have to get the word out there that we take the best care of the animals that we can.”

And Matli says how you manage your employees can translate to how the animals are treated.

“The way that you handle the team members is the way that they handle the pigs. So, if you take care of your team members and explain things and give them as much training as you can, they will in turn respect the pigs and treat them the way you want them treated.”

Brownfield interviewed Matli at the 2020 Illinois Pork Expo in Springfield, Illinois.