Keeping it in the family: Simms and sons stay busy on the hog farm

(Editor’s note: This article coincides with National Pork Month.)
 
Unlike grain farming, raising swine is an all day, all year kind of gig. Just ask Matt Simms: the eldest son of Steve Simms, who along with his two brothers Ben and Brandon works on the family farm, has awoken at 4:00 a.m. to load semi trucks full of hogs more times than he can remember.
           
The elder Simms has been raising pigs in the rural area between Grundy Center, Eldora, Conrad and Wellsburg his whole life, and the family currently has three farms with hog sites. Nowadays, they contract feed with JBS Swift of Marshalltown, and with the state of the grain market, livestock has offered an opportunity for all three sons to get a start in agriculture.
           
“It’s about the only way (to get into farming). It was always kind of in the back of my head, and that’s what was going to make it happen,” Matt, a Grundy Center High School graduate, said.
           
When you’re caring for up to 10,000 hogs at a time, it isn’t always easy to rest, and both Matt and Steve stressed that raising them is an around the clock job. They don’t just magically go from the farm to the meat counter at your local grocery store: someone has to get them there.
           
“It’s every day. There are no days off,” Steve said. “It’s not for everybody.”
 
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