Smithfield Hog Production Division

Last updated
Smithfield Hog Production Division
Company typeSubsidiary of Smithfield Foods
Founded1988
Headquarters Princeton, Missouri

Smithfield Hog Production Division, formerly Premium Standard Farms, Inc. (PSF), is a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Inc.

Contents

Premium Standard Farms was the second-largest pork producer and the sixth-largest processor in the United States until Smithfield Foods acquired it in 2007. [1] [2] [3]

In 2013, the company was acquired by Shuanghui International, China’s largest pork producer. [4]

History

PSF was founded in 1988 in Smithfield, Virginia, [5] with the aim of creating a standardized method to produce premium pork. To accomplish this goal, the company decided to pursue full vertical integration—a first for pork producers in the United States.[ citation needed ]

In 2007, Smithfield acquired Premium Standard Farms for $800 million in cash, stock, and debt. [6] [5]

Locations

Smithfield Hog Production is headquartered in Princeton, Missouri[ citation needed ] and owns a pork processing plant located in Milan, Missouri. [7] At one time, the company operated 132 company-owned farms and 109 contract farms in the state of Missouri, in addition to a leased farm and eight feed mills. [8]

In July 2021, the company closed its original slaughter plant in Smithfield, Virginia. [8] [9]

In February 2023, Smithfield Foods closed its meatpacking plant in Vernon, California. [10] [11] [12]

In May 2023, the company closed 37 sow farms in Missouri. [8] [13] [14]

In October 2023 the company shut down a pork plant in Charlotte, North Carolina. [15]

In December 2023 Smithfield ended contracts with 26 hog farms in Utah citing oversupply. [15]

Methane harvesting

Valley View Farm, near Green Castle, Missouri, is a finishing site that houses more than 100,000 hogs at any given time. Half of the site's waste lagoons are covered to allow the harvesting of methane gas. [16] Smithfield also has farms that engage in methane harvesting in Bethany and Princeton. [17]

Smithfield built a connection from its farms in northern Missouri to the pipeline that supplies natural gas to Milan, Missouri. Fuel produced by Smithfield is mixed directly into Milan's gas supply. [18] This project took 18 months.

Smithfield has formed a partnership with Roeslein Alternative Energy and Monarch Bioenergy, to help produce biogas. [18] [17] In early 2020, Smithfield and Roesleing Alternative Energy announced an additional $45 million investment in Monarch. This money will be used to expand Monarch's renewable natural gas capture and distribution to at least 85% of Smithfield's Missouri farms. [19]

Smithfield's gas harvesting efforts are part of its stated goal of reducing its greenhouse gas footprint by 25%. This is using the company's 2010 emissions as the base for calculation. [18] [17]

Litigation

In 2010, a Jackson County, Missouri, jury awarded seven neighboring farmers $11 million in damages for odors emanating from a 4,300 acre finishing farm near Berlin in Gentry County, Missouri where an estimated 200,000 hogs are processed annually. In 2006, six plaintiffs were awarded $4.6 million from the lawsuit (the largest in a hog farm odor issue), originally filed in 1999. [1] [2]

References

  1. 1 2 Hog farm operators ordered to pay $11M for odor - St. Louis Bizjournal - March 5, 2010
  2. 1 2 "History of Premium Standard Farms, Inc. – FundingUniverse". www.fundinguniverse.com.
  3. ↑ Burrows, Dan (18 September 2006). "Smithfield Foods to buy Premium Standard Farms". Market Watch. Dow Jones. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  4. ↑ Hein, Treena (2023-05-02). "Smithfield closing almost 40 farms in Missouri". Pig Progress. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  5. 1 2 Kilman, Scott (2006-09-19). "Smithfield to Buy Hog Farmer Premium Standard". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  6. ↑ "Smithfield Foods finishes buying rival". thestar.com. 2007-05-08. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  7. ↑ McCarthy, Ella (2022-06-13). "Processing a transformation: How industry remade Milan". Columbia Missourian. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  8. 1 2 3 Hein, Treena (2023-05-02). "Smithfield closing almost 40 farms in Missouri". Pig Progress. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  9. ↑ Polansek, Tom (2021-07-13). "Smithfield Foods stops slaughtering pigs at U.S. hometown plant". Reuters.
  10. ↑ "Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon to close soon". ABC7 Los Angeles. 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  11. ↑ Lee, Kurtis (2022-08-01). "Why an Iconic California Meatpacking Plant Is Closing". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  12. ↑ "Smithfield Foods to shutter California meat-packing plant". The Hill. 2022-06-11. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  13. ↑ Desk, KTVO News (2023-04-28). "Smithfield Foods reportedly closing northern Missouri sow farms". KTVO. Retrieved 2023-07-13.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  14. ↑ "37 Missouri Smithfield sow farms may be closing this month". AG DAILY. 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  15. 1 2 Polansek, Tom (6 December 2023). "Smithfield Foods ends contracts with 26 US pig farms, citing oversupply". Reuters. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  16. ↑ Freese, Betsy (14 November 2018). "BUTTERFLIES AND BIOGAS A FOCUS OF SMITHFIELD FOODS". Successful Farming. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  17. 1 2 3 Chen, Eli (6 August 2019). "Access To Pig Manure-Powered Energy Grows In Northern Missouri". KBIA. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  18. 1 2 3 "Smithfield Foods completes natural gas transmission line in Milan". National Hog Farmer. August 5, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Smithfield Foods increases investment in renewable energy scheme". globalmeatnews.com.
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