Iowa is the nation's number one pork producing state, responsible for almost 25 percent of total U.S. pork production. With its wonderful environment and availability of plentiful corn and soybeans for feed, Iowa's pork producers maximize quality and produce the type of meat in demand by both domestic and overseas buyers. It isn't just environmental factors that are responsible for the top quality pork, however. Iowa's 20,000 pork producers go to great lengths to raise the animals that result in the world's finest pork products.
Research is a big part of Iowa's effective pork production.
With the help of researchers at Iowa State University and the university's Meat Export Research Center, for instance, the Iowa pork industry keeps abreast of new products and processing technologies, export-related technology, and market and economic studies. The Center also is a resource base for other important information that helps assure prompt and careful attention to export needs. Other research facilities and experimental farms help further provide the technology to create and maintain the high quality Iowa pork that is so popular worldwide. Though it's the largest in the nation, Iowa's pork industry is actually made up of many smaller family farms and operations. This assures that buyers can obtain individual attention and prompt service, and acquire the kinds of products that will excite their customers and fit their own marketing needs.