Each year at its annual meeting, Indiana Pork gives out Meritorious Service Awards to individuals who have donated their time and effort to support Indiana Pork.
This year, those individuals were Ted Hendrickson, a pork producer in Randolph County, and Greg Slipher, a livestock specialist with Indiana Farm Bureau.
Hendrickson is considered by peers to be, and has been, an influential production leader in the Indiana swine industry since 1976 when he graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor's degree in agriculture. Immediately after graduation, Hendrickson started working at a swine operation, which he managed for a few years before he was afforded the opportunity to manage Stoney Creek Farms, which would be the second in a long list of operations Hendrickson has managed successfully over the years.
After many years of expanding and managing swine operations, Hendrickson decided to establish Hendrickson Farms, which he manages and owns. The operation is located in Farmland, Ind., where Hendrickson is from originally. His farm holds 4,000 feeder-to-finish pigs.
In 2004, Hendrickson joined Maxwell Foods and was the first employee hired for the Indiana expansion of the company. Currently, he serves there as market swine manager, and oversees the management of 800,000 head per year, wean to market. He was instrumental in developing Maxwell's Indiana system, taking the contract production from its inception to now more than 400,000 finish spaces.
Slipher has held his position at Indiana Farm Bureau as a livestock specialist since 2006. Before that, he served 12 years as as director of industry services for the Indiana Pork Producers Assn. There, he worked on local advocacy, producer education and Indiana Pork's "building strong communities" program.
Slipher currently works with representatives from the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Pork as part of their Indiana livestock team to help producers succeed on their operations.
"We appreciate all Greg's work on behalf of the pork industry, and we're glad that, even though he's not working for us anymore, he's still working for us," said Indiana Pork president Joe Baldwin.
Slipher took his award graciously, thanking the pork producers across the state that help Indiana Pork Succeed.
"This is probably what I consider the highest compliment—being recognized by peers, so, for that, thank you very much," Slipher said.