Over time, more and more seemingly endless uses were found. Corn can fuel our cars, sweeten our soda, be turned into plastics, and that’s only the beginning. Soybeans have a growing number of industrial uses, biodiesel, bioheat, and more.

But pigs and cows and chickens still have to eat. And so do humans. Livestock produced on Iowa farms provides an abundance of tasty protein to build strong bodies. Throughout history, few societies have dined as well as Americans.

That’s what this story is all about — putting food on the table. So while the words may focus on input costs, and manure, transportation, or building efficiencies, it’s really all about protein.

At the Hanor Company, it’s all about the pork.

The Hanor Family of Companies came to Webster City in 2003, renting a small office on Second Street. Over the years, the business and the office grew until the company eventually purchased the building, long remembered as the Extension Office for Hamilton County.

Jim Moody is vice president of finishing and marketing for the Hanor Company. He’s been pleased to see the company grow, all the while helping area farmers prosper through cooperative ventures that give pigs a place to live and supplies farmers with manure to put down on their fields.

But first, a little history. The Hanor Company got its start in Wisconsin in the 1970s.

“Our corporate office started up in Spring Green, Wisconsin,” Moody said. “We bought all the old PIC (Pig Improvement Company) offices up there and we continued to expand through the mid to late 1990s. A lot of our senior team came on board at that time and we’ve been able to retain that entire team this whole period. Actually, we are just now seeing some of those folks start to retire.”

Hanor Company was also part of Farmland Food’s Best Pork Program for a period. When that company left the scene, Hanor explored new options for growth.

“In the early 2000s we decided we were going to partner with a number of other producers and we built our first packing plant down in St. (Joseph), Missouri,” Moody said.

Known as Triumph Foods, that plant went into operation in 2006 and processes some 21,000 pigs a day.

“It’s the largest cooperatively owned packing plant in the U.S.,” Moody said. “It may not be a co-op in the true sense of the word, but it is. It was a group of like-minded producers that partnered together to build and own a packing plant. In Triumph, producers own 100 percent of it.”

The venture was so successful that in more recent years Hanor Company teamed up to build a similar processing facility in Sioux City. This time Hanor partnered with Seaboard Foods, creating Seaboard Triumph Foods (STF). The Sioux City facility also processes 21,000 pigs a day.

“We had no pigs in Iowa in 2000, and today we have close to a million spaces here,” Moody said. “We produce about 2 million pigs a year.”

To do that, it takes a lot of cooperative ventures with independent farmers. Hanor Company owns the pigs, but it does not own the buildings where those pigs are raised. Farmers put up their own buildings and have the choice of providing the labor to care for the hogs, or to have Hanor bring in their own employees.

What do the farmers get in return? A rich source of nutrients in the form of hog manure to apply to their fields. The farmer pumps the manure and applies it to fields. They provide their own analysis from the pit in order to determine application rates.

The buildings, according to Moody, tend to retain their value over time. And the resource of free hog manure just keeps coming in, year after year.

“If you think about it, it goes on forever,” Moody said. “A 2,400-head barn will provide roughly enough fertilizer for 200 to 250 acres, depending their cropping rotation, and they get that every single year.”

Input costs are one of the many variables that farmers can’t control, but their cost of putting up the building is fixed, and the value of the manure received can provide substantial savings.

“Some years, if fertilizer costs are low, it’s not as valuable, but with years like this year, when fertilizer costs are through the roof, it has tremendous value for a farmer,” Moody said.

For those who enjoy working with livestock, the arrangement provides not just input savings, but another income source.

For many farm families, it’s not only a way to save on input costs, but also a way to bring another generation back to a family farm.

“This can be a great way for a farm family if they need additional income to bring a son or a daughter back into the farming operation,” Moody said. “A lot of farmers have used that as an avenue to get their kids back into the operation because it does provide income and at the same time it provides a valuable resource.”

Of course, working with livestock isn’t for everyone, and as farmers age, there are fewer of them wanting to take on the high level of commitment to care for livestock, day in and day out.

“Today we’re about half and half, with about half of the farmers providing the labor, and half of the operations where we provide the labor,” Moody says. “It’s tending more toward us providing the labor.”

Providing the pigs is another story. The piglets are farrowed in other states and shipped into Iowa when they reach about 12 pounds, normally at about three weeks old.

There are many reasons the hogs are farrowed elsewhere, partially because of wanting to keep hog density levels stable.

“All of our sows are located primarily in North Carolina, Oklahoma and Illinois,” Moody said. “Almost all of our pigs are raised from 12 pounds up to market weight here in Iowa. For the health of our pigs, we’ve elected to have our sows in areas where the density is lower, and that helps give us healthier pigs.”

At one time, it was hard to imagine shipping piglets at such a young age, but Moody says 12 weeks seems to be very successful.

“We’ve gotten really good at paneling the trailers and providing a great environment for them,” he said.

Why not feed out the piglets in other states? It goes back to that abundance of corn and soybeans this story started out with in the first place. Feed costs can be much higher in other states. It’s all part of the food chain and it’s what puts protein on the table.

“Iowa has a great resource for feed in the corn and soybeans,” Moody said. “Livestock — whether it’s pigs or cattle or poultry — will follow the feed. And if livestock follows the feed, so do the packing plants.”

Today, Hanor Company has some 300 locations in Iowa. Some farmers will have more than one location in order to garner enough manure for their acres. This cooperative venture has allowed Hanor to grow, while benefiting farmers and the consumer.

Moody credits the state of Iowa with creating a business environment that is friendly for growth.

“Iowa has been a great place for us to grow,” he said. “We seek to be good neighbors. That’s always a goal of ours, and Iowa has been a great place for us to grow and raise pigs.”