Naig visits Kaufman Farms to discuss show pigs, 'Choose Iowa'

   When Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig visited Kaufman Farms near Anamosa Jan. 23, he was motivated by three things:

   • He wanted to learn about the farm’s efforts to involve the sale of show pigs in the Choose Iowa state-branded initiative for agriculture.

   • He wanted to offer advice to the family on how it can use Choose Iowa to further promote sales.

   • It also helped that it was convenient.

   “I’m on the road today and tomorrow,” Naig said to members of the Kaufman family. “I was just in Cedar Rapids, so we were in this area.

   “We thought, ‘There’s got to be a good Choose Iowa member somewhere along here that we can meet with, and you were right on the way.”

   So, Naig met with the family and two media members during a meeting in the Kaufman shop.

   The Kaufmans – Terry and Suzy, their son Nathan and his wife Alycia – have been Choose Iowa members since early last fall. They represent one of the first 100 memberships for the program, which launched during the 2023 Iowa State Fair.

   “It all started with wanting to reach more people,” Alycia said.

   Terry agreed: “We felt like we wanted to reach out a little farther. We have our friends and our neighbors (as customers), but we needed to be heard and seen from a little farther out.”

   To that end, Choose Iowa, run by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, appears to be helpful. According to chooseiowa.com, “Choose Iowa’s vision is to connect consumers to Iowa produce and food products and expand markets for Iowa Farmers.”

   Members must meet certain quality and eligibility criteria in order to be able to label their agricultural products with the Choose Iowa logo.

   What makes Kaufman Farms unique among members is it not only wants to sell pork and pork products, but it also wants to promote sales of its main commodity: show pigs.

   The farm raises show pigs and feed lot pigs in an array of breeds. It also does crop farming, making round and square bales of hay and square bales of straw, and raises and sells beef cattle.

   “We have a farrow-to-finish operation,” Suzy said. “We have about 90 sows.

   “Our first goal is to sell in the show pig market, and what doesn’t get sold as show pigs goes into our lot.”

   The family had modest success with both show and market pigs for many years. Then COVID hit, and changed everything on the food side.

   “All of a sudden,” Terry said, “it was like the world was going to end. Nobody was going to be able to find meat. We had people calling, looking for us.”

   Naig agreed: “The disrupted supply chains had people saying, ‘I want to buy local.’ ”

   Selling directly to customers enables the Kaufmans, Suzy said, “to be more in control of our own pricing.”

   The Kaufmans got involved with show pigs 22 years ago when Nathan, then 12, began taking them into the show ring at fairs.

   “Once he and his brother (Justin) got out of showing,” Suzy said, “We just kept with it. We had enough success, for long enough, that people were coming to us, saying, ‘Now that he’s done, do you want to sell a pig?’ It built from there.”

   The show pigs have provided benefits, family members said, that are not just financial.

   “We’ve got a good base,” Nathan offered. “We’re lucky to have families that come back every year to buy them.”

   Terry added: “We have made some great relationships over the years. Somebody buys a pig, and pretty soon you become friends, and it’s been nice. We’ve met a lot of nice people across the state just doing that.”

   The decision to join Choose Iowa came about when Suzy discovered the logo on the website of another farmer they knew.

   “I thought, ‘What’s this about?’ I clicked on it, and that’s where it started,” she said. “And signing up was super simple.”

   “The girls (Suzy and Alycia) started that,” Terry said.

   They hope to build a market for show pigs with Choose Iowa.

   “Choose Iowa is more toward food and beverages – it’s not really designed for show pigs – but we’re hoping,” Suzy said.

   Naig said he is amazed at how Choose Iowa has grown in its year-and-a-half of existence.

   “We have 165 members as of today,” Naig told the family. “That number was 150 at the end of December.

   “We’re thinking about, ‘How do we better connect the Choose Iowa membership, to sell to each other?’ What we’re finding is that members are the best source of information for other members.”

   Naig said research has shown that consumers are willing to pay a little more for a product that has a state-branded logo.

   “People are looking for it. They will actually go find it,” he said.

   He offered an example:

   “You can walk into a grocery store and find 70 kinds of barbecue sauce. Which is great; we love that. But if you found one that had a Choose Iowa logo on it, You’re going to home in on that one.”

   Iowa is also learning from other states regarding similar initiatives.

   “Normally we like to say Iowa is leading the way on everything,” Naig said. “In this case, there are 40-some other states that have state-branded programs. This is new to Iowa.

   “We did a ton of research with other state programs. But you still have to tailor it to your own state.”

   Choose Iowa, Naig said, is also looking for feedback and ideas on how it can improve.

   “If you have other ideas like this,” Naig said, “Feed it to the team, because we’re looking at everything right now.”

   Kaufman Farms, Suzy said, delivers to the locker, for custom processing, quarter, half and whole beef (there is a waiting list).

   The farm also has half and whole hogs, which are always in the lot and available.

   For information, call Suzy Kaufman at 319-821-3245.