White Named 2026 Master Pork Producer
Published: Friday, March 6, 2026
Andy White joined the names of other Master Pork Producers when he stood as the 2026 award recipient during Michigan Pork Producers Symposium. He is a proud sixth-generation farmer who is raising the seventh, on their Jones, Michigan farm.
"Andy is young, energetic and is balancing his own farm business and family and then steps up to lead and support the state's industry—we need more of that," said Kevin Turner.
White is the immediate past president of Michigan Pork Producers Assn., spending 15 years as a board member. Raising a family, running a family farm and a retail meat business while serving the interests of the swine industry through MPPA creates a web of hectic schedules and long days.
"It is not always easy," White said. "But we get to feed the world, we take pride in it and do the best we can, the significance of what we are doing doesn't come lightly."
He spent four weeks at a post-college at a job before giving two weeks' notice for a career change that led him back to his home at White Farm where he and his brother, Jon, bought into the business, and reverted the name back to the one used by their grandfather, Rolling Meadows Farm.
Through each operating name and owner, the farm has grown in size, production methods, and efficiency. From pasture production to a confinement system, each generation embraced new practices while in charge.
Andy's father, Bill White, introduced pigs to the farm in the late 1960s with a bred gilt FFA project, raising a litter, and returning the gilt and a percentage of the offspring to the next member in line. As the herd grew, he partnered with a neighbor for a time before moving to the present farm, owned by his wife Sue's parents. In 1976, they built a farrow to finish barn, survived the pseudorabies era, and expanded. The 1990s were a decade of growth, adding gestation barns to the farrowing unit and building finishing barns. The last sows farrowed outside in 2001. A neighbor's sow unit was purchased in 2000, and facilities were upgraded during the next 10 years.
Michigan laws regarding space and farrowing crates demanded industry wide change in the production model, forcing the Whites to remodel and reimagine their facilities. The revamping changed the way sows were housed, but also reducing the number of sows Rolling Meadows could support within the given space. The changes led them to drop some of the rented space in Indiana and helped streamline to a size where they can finish most of the pigs themselves.
"We have been farrowing in a batch system since 2019, farrowing once per month, weaning pigs every four weeks," White said.
Moving the hogs inside had enormous impact on herd health and animal care. Improved genetics moved production metrics towards a more efficient sow that raised more pigs per year, one of the factors allowing the Whites to decrease the sow herd size yet continue to use all the available space for weaning and finishing. Herd health is one of Andy's top farm priorities.
"You can maintain the best genetics in the world but if you don't maintain good herd health, it is always going to be a struggle," he said.
Attention to details like herd health has paid off in a sow mortality rate which is consistently at half the national rate and paying off in downstream operations of nursery and finisher units, where mortality rates again stand impressively against national averages.
"We've honed in our genetics and herd health. Less mortality in the sows means we have to replace fewer of them. Good health is part of why we can keep feed conversion in our finisher barns around 2.48 pounds of feed per pound of gain," Andy said.
Andy's parents, Bill and Sue White, continue their roles at the farm both in the office and fields, especially during busiest seasons. "I'll take all the help they can give and all the knowledge and wisdom they've gained over the way," White said.
Rolling Meadow Farms has diverse selling opportunities including four hundred feeder pigs monthly to a grower, a flexible contract grower to handle overflow, finish barns, and retail meat sales on the farm through Chops and Co., owned by Andy and his wife, Carrie. The retail business began in 2014 when Jon and Andy partnered with a distributor to market locally raised pork to restaurants and meat outlets in the Chicago area, selling as many as forty-five head weekly. The business downsized when Jon left the farm, and Andy and Carrie bought his shares of both farm and business. During early stages of the covid pandemic, White noticed supply chains tightening, and reserved space early at a USDA inspected plant. Throughout the pandemic, they sold eight hogs every other week, building a base of repeat customers. Sales volumes have dropped since then as schedules of a young family have grown.
"There isn't enough time to do it all," he said.
"Andy understands how pigs are raised from a slat level on the farm," said Paul Pridgeon. "He is fully connected to the pig and sees how production connects to the industry, from legislation to genetics to technology. That insight is coming from someone who is going to use it in the barn."
White believes in doing the right thing for the animals in his care, being diligent in animal husbandry, feeding the right diet for health and growth, and relying on the basics for successful hog production.
"Be patient, have faith. Provide the highest quality you can, and listen to your consumers," he said.
Off the farm, the family enjoys snow skiing and recently added water skiing to their hobbies. "Since the kids are becoming interested in hunting, I've picked that up again, and it is a fun activity with the kids. I hope we can build memories together and teach them lessons that will carry them forward into another generation of ownership, and a place where they can share the same experiences with their children someday."
"Andy is able to maintain and remain successful. That makes him a master pork producer in this day and age," Turner added.
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