Smithfield Hog Production Division

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

Smithfield Hog Production Division
TypeSubsidiary of Smithfield Foods
Founded1988
HeadquartersPrinceton, Missouri

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.

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 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]

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.[15] Smithfield also has farms that engage in methane harvesting in Bethany and Princeton.[16]

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.[17] This project took 18 months.

Smithfield has formed a partnership with Roeslein Alternative Energy and Monarch Bioenergy, to help produce biogas.[17][16] 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.[18]

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.[17][16]

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. Hog farm operators ordered to pay $11M for odor - St. Louis Bizjournal - March 5, 2010
  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. 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. 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.
  14. "37 Missouri Smithfield sow farms may be closing this month". AG DAILY. 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  15. Freese, Betsy (14 November 2018). "BUTTERFLIES AND BIOGAS A FOCUS OF SMITHFIELD FOODS". Successful Farming. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  16. Chen, Eli (6 August 2019). "Access To Pig Manure-Powered Energy Grows In Northern Missouri". KBIA. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  17. "Smithfield Foods completes natural gas transmission line in Milan". National Hog Farmer. August 5, 2019.
  18. "Smithfield Foods increases investment in renewable energy scheme". globalmeatnews.com.
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