United Animal Health

Trent Torrance and Bob Altman traveled from Indianapolis to Des Moines to staff United Animal Health’s booth at the Iowa Pork Congress on Jan. 24-25. The Sheridan, Indiana-based feed company has a feed mill in Frytown that manufactures complete feed pellets for baby pigs and blends vitamin and trace-mineral supplements.

The pair’s objective for the tradeshow was to meet their customers, prospective customers, suppliers, and other allied folks.

“It’s one central meeting area,” Torrance said.

“It does give us an opportunity to kind of rub elbows a little bit,” Altman added.

They’ve both attended the Iowa tradeshow many times, and they say it is one of the largest shows in the area.

They’ve also spent time in Frytown, but it seems their exploration of the area has been limited.

“Just north of Kalona on Highway 1 there is an ice-cream, sliced cheese place. Is that worth stopping at?” Altman asked The News.

Kalona Creamery? “Absolutely,” we told him.

Eldon C Stutsman Inc/Automated Waste Systems

John Yoder helped staff Stutsman’s booth on Wednesday morning, ready to greet existing customers and create new ones for the Hills-based business. Giant pieces of machinery surrounded him inside the exhibition space.

“They’re all manure pumps,” he said, one self-contained, another capable of injection. The effort to get them into the hall was “not too much,” he said, adding that three pickup trucks delivered them in the days prior.

Yoder says he always enjoys his time at the tradeshow.

“You get to meet a lot of people; you get to see people in the industry. It’s the one place that you can come to that every county in Iowa is here,” he said.

Stutsmans exhibits at about six tradeshows a year, Yoder says, including the World Pork Expo at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

The business looks forward to its 90th anniversary this summer.

PSI-Precision Structures Inc

“This is the 26th year now that I’ve been going to these shows, and it’s kind of fun,” Chris Harmsen said at the Precision Structures Inc. (PSI) booth at the Iowa Pork Congress tradeshow. “At the beginning you don’t feel like you know anyone, and after a number of years, everywhere you turn, you’re running into people and have stuff to catch up on. It gives us something to look forward to.”

Harmsen manned the booth alongside wife and co-owner Nicole; their Wellman-based business constructs new swine facilities, remodels existing ones, and provides maintenance services.

Prop 12, which dictates how mother pigs are confined, among other things, if pork is to be sold in California took effect on Jan. 1. So far, this has not affected PSI.

“There’s sort of an industry balancing going on currently,” Harmsen explained. “California consumed 15% of domestic pork. Now the question is, how much of domestic pork is already complying with Prop 12? I believe producers are in that process of trying to figure that out now.”

Once Prop 12 is enforced, “How much is it going to raise the price of pork? That’s part of the balance also, does that extra price justify the cost of the remodel to be able to sell in California? And if it doesn’t, I guess there’s going to be less bacon to go around there. And if it does, then there will be another remodel that covers that.”

PSI builds structures in eight states, “sort of the greater Midwest,” Harmsen said. The business celebrated 40 years in 2023; they’ve built around 3000 facilities in that time.

They also ensure Wellman residents take home a complimentary holiday ham from Freeman Foods every year.
“We’re glad people like it,” Harmsen said. “Its fun seeing them run that up every year.”

Vittetoe, Inc

At the Vittetoe Inc. booth, Casey Sieren was ready to talk hog equipment with anyone who stopped by. The Keota-based business sells gates and feeders among other things; they also work with Custom Builders out of Tipton, and they had video playing showing the complete construction of a facility.

While the business uses the tradeshow to find new clients and show off new products, “We see a lot of people we see back home [too],” Sieren said.

Out on the floor were a few new products, including different kinds of gates and feeders for different stages of the pig production cycle.