25 years of Our Families Feeding Your Families Murphy-Brown of Missouri LLC PSF/MBM 25th Anniversary

The Mercer County Mirror Reflecting Mercer County The People's Paper

Septemeber 17 2014

"With the vision to bring an integrated pork production company to Northern Missouri, the company now known as Murphy Brown of Missouri was founded in 1988. Located in Princeton, Missouri, operations began modestly with only 3 associates when the first pigs arrived during the summer of 1989. Rapid growth over the next six years....installment of company managed genetic improvement facility (deb's note: semen production. and yeah, I worked there, too.), production farms in Mercer, Putnam, and Sullivan counties, feed mills in Princeton and Lucerne. Five years after startup, sow count reached 85,000 and grew by 20,000 with the acquisition of a complete farrow to finish operation from National Hog Farms, located near the Texas Panhandle. 1994 the 300,000 square foot Milan Processing Plant became operational with 100 pigs being processed on the first day of operation.

in 1998 Continental Grain Company acquired a majority interest, including existing operations in Missouri and Texas, and the former North Missouri Farms near Gallatin, MO. By end of 2000 Lundy's Packing Company and ContiGroup's Carolina farms were acquired.

They set themselves apart from the competition by being the first United States Pork Processor to meet the food safety standards required to export fresh pork meat to the European Union. The first company in the pork industry to initiate a quality management program in which the USDA audited all phases of production to verify compliance with internally set standards to ensure safe, consistent and high quality pork.

2007: PSF acquired by Smithfield Foods, Inc. the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In 2013 the company name was changed to Murphy-Brown of Missouri. LLC, a division of Murphy-Brown LLC. 2013: Smithfield Foods announced a strategic alliance with Shuanghui International of China

and the vision of the company: deb's note: it gets longer every time they redo it. seriously. it is now a short story. "To be a leader in the production of high quality pork with a focus on efficiency and sustainability of our business. We are committed, through our valued and skilled employees, to show respect for the animals we raise and the environment in which we operate." (deb: at one time, it was something about high quality pork at a profitable price.)

written by Sydney Lawrence. (I get the feeling that author was an intern. definitely someone who likes capitalization. hell, these articles make ME want to work there. and I know better. I started as a part time power washer...then went full time nursery....12 on 2 off, $13000/yr., working my way up thru farrowing and breeding, becoming an assistant manager for $20000/yr. I worked in 1100 barns and did an involuntary stint in a 2200 barn. I worked at GIF and DD Pole Barn. I'm still at Peach 5, where I was sent LAST summer for 90 days. Now we make hourly pay...we punch an actual time clock!, after some glorious years of working every 3rd weekend, we are back to every other weekend, but get the Wednesday off after the weekend we work. (once upon a time we got half days at the managers discretion.) unless we're de-popping for PEDV. then not so much.

I have worked at Wade 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, with the majority of years at Wade 3. AND at Wolf 9 and Peach 5, DD Pole Barn, and GIF. I have worn coveralls and red t-shirts and scrub pants. at least the gum boots got better....went from stiff black ones to stiff white ones to kind of almost comfy yellow ones. I have walked a lot of miles in gum boots, cussed at a lot of animals, treated a bunch of animals, loaded a bunch of animals on and off trucks. I have taken a bajillion showers and dug in countless clogged feed bins. I have walked risers in lightning, downpours, blizzards, ass deep snow, and sunshine. I have been called out in the wee hours of the night for cold rooms and unreliable sensors...but not anymore...because the manager I have now takes all calls. God Bless Chris! I have used boars with gates for heat check, then walked the boar on a tether harness, and now remote control drive a boar around in a cart. I have cut tails with pliers, an electric tail docker, and now a butane one. things change, things remain the same. the barns are always notoriously short staffed. some days are overwhelming. some aren't so bad. As long as Pepsi-Cola stays in business, I'll survive. because I don't know if I could get thru a day in the barn without my ice cold Pepsi! I've worked with dick weeds and asshats, and I've made so good life-long friends. I was raised to work hard in adverse conditions. It's almost like I was born and bred to be one of The Few, The Proud, The Barn People.