DES MOINES — The Iowa Area Development Group, on behalf of Iowa’s rural electric cooperatives, municipal utilities, and independent telecommunication companies, honored Iowa Select Farms with the “Outstanding Business of the Year” Iowa Venture Award.

Iowa Select Farms, headquartered in Iowa Falls, is the fourth-largest pork producer in the world and the largest family-owned production company in the U.S. It markets over four million hogs and 1.5 billion pounds of pork annually. With over 800 farms in 52 counties, Iowa Select has become a leading employer and economic engine for the state and Iowa’s rural communities.

Iowa Select Farms employs and contracts with more than 1,850 Iowan’s and works with over 1,700 different Iowa companies to provide animal science and livestock care, transportation, maintenance and repair, veterinary, environmental, information technology, construction, swine nutrition, and hundreds of other roles crucial to the business.

The company recently embarked upon state of the art innovation and investment in single barn and double barn pig finishing facilities, as well as the construction of ten new sow farms aimed at addressing an Iowa sow herd decline that has been ensuing since 1990. Each of these breed-to-wean farms has an economic impact of $4.7 million annually. This number includes facility construction and maintenance, 18 facility jobs, direct payroll of over $700,000, and ripples onward to include equipment, feed and grain, energy, internet, taxes, and other consumables.

Iowa Select Farm owners Deb and Jeff Hansen created the Foundation in 2006 as a dedicated effort to giving back to communities and families of Iowa. The Foundation has been of major support in combatting food insecurity, demonstrating gratitude to veterans and their families, and providing research and support to childcare cancer patients and families. Midland Power Cooperative nominated Iowa Select Farms for the Iowa Venture Award.

“The Iowa Venture Awards Luncheon provides a forum to celebrate the courage, contribution, innovation, responsibility, and vision of Iowa entrepreneurs,” said IADG President Rand Fisher. “In over 30 years of presenting Iowa Venture Awards, no company has ever demonstrated a more far-reaching impact on Iowa electric cooperatives and the communities and members they serve than Iowa Select Farms.”