Three leaders of Wisconsin's pork industry were recognized during the 2010 annual business meeting of the Wisconsin Pork Association.

This years Distinguished Service Award was presented to Deb Gay of Reeseville.  The award recognizes a fellow pork producer whose contributions to the Wisconsin swine industry merit special recognition. There is no greater honor than being singled out by your peers for serving your organization and industry.

 

Debhas been involved in almost all facets of WPA responsibility.  She was originally elected to the WPPA Board of Directors in February of 2000, and was elected to the reorganized Wisconsin Pork Association board in September of 2003. She just stepped down from the board last year. While on the board, she served as President, Vice President, and Treasurer. 

 

In addition to serving time on the board, Gay has been committed to the Pork Schoppe at Wisconsin State Fair, Pork Promotion, and Public Policy. She has also helped to organize the successful golf outing since its’ inception. 

 

Another special award at this years meeting was the Distinguished Service Industry Honoree Award. The recipient of the award for 2009 is Paul George, Evansville, who unfortunately passed away last year.

 

Paul George was a third generation Duroc Breeder. He grew up showing purebred Duroc breeding stock with George Bros. Farms of Evansville. Paul started farming on his own in 1977 with 11 sows and 84 acres. He operated a farrow to finish operation for many years and a few years ago sold his farrowing crates to a young producer. 

 

Paul was best known for his work as an auctioneer, which he started doing in 1967. He began working with his father at that time.   Paul did many of the pig auctions, especially in the later years. 

 

In an effort to recognize growers who step up to tell their story,  Agri View newspaper presented its Agri-Communicator Award to Shannon Wolf of Lancaster.

 

Shannon is the third generation of the Wolf family to work on Wolf L&G Farms in Lancaster.  Today, the Wolf L&G Farms boasts a farrow to finish operation that has 1,200 sows producing 25,000 pigs annually. The Wolfs also run 200 head of beef cows and raise 1,800 acres of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. 

 

Wolf participated in the Operation Main Street Training program in December, 2005. Since that time, he has given 12 presentations to civic organizations in Southwest Wisconsin and Northeast Iowa. In addition, this last fall he hosted members of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce to the farm to discuss modern pork production. He also participated in the Pork Leadership Academy in 2005, a program sponsored by the National Pork Board to identify and train industry leaders.

 

Wolf has been an active member of the WPA Board of Directors, and served as President in 2008. He has participated as a member of the Executive, Public Policy, and Animal Welfare Committees.