Saturday, August 19, 2023 | Country Acres South • Page 1 PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #278 Madelia, MN 522 Sinclair Lewis Ave Sauk Centre MN 56378
SOUTH Saturday, August 19, 2023
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Volume 2, Edition 6
PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO
the Patterson farm Pigs relax Aug. 1 onPatterson did many near Kenyon. Mike ring the coronavirus media interviews du mer affected by pandemic as a fardowns. processing plant shut
PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO
T Patterson family – Leia (front); (back, from left) Mike, Rebekah, Julia and Belle – smile Aug. 1 on their pig farm near The Kenyon. The Pattersons finish 10,000 pigs each year on their farm. Not pictured is the Pattersons’ daughter Maddie. K BY AMY KYLLO | STAFF WRITER
A pig sticks its nose through PHOTO BY AMY KYLLO the gate Aug. 1 on the Patterson farm near Kenyon began his career as a pig farm . Mike Patterson when he bought into the sow er in 1995 at 18 co-op his parents helped start.
KENYON – Every couple of m months, viewers of Twin Cities L Live can see Mike Patterson sshare his family’s pork recipes. For m F many, one of these segments woul w would be their first and last 15 sseco seconds of fame, but for Mike, these interviews are a few of man many he has done to promote the pork industry. Mike and his wife Rebekah Patt Patterson, and their daughters, fini nish 10,000 pigs each year on the their farm near Kenyon. The media interviews all star started in 2020 when the Pattersons son were informed that their processing pro plant was closing ind nitely. indefi With pigs continually coming co into the barns and no pl place to send them, the PatterPHOTO SUBMITTED at the so were in a bind. s a boar in Marchnference sons ow sh n rso tte Pa lle Co Be “When you’re drinking try Southwest Type National Swine Regis Patterson girls attend 10 to 12 fr from a firehose, ... we just e Th n. in Belton, Texas. a and across the natio ot tried tr to do the next right es nn Mi in ar ye ch s ea show
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thing,” Mike said. Together, the couple began trying to sell their pigs one or two at a time. Mike still has the planner filled with hundreds of names they connected with. They booked up as many spots at local butchers as they could and ended up selling 600 pigs. They also partnered with the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls to use their meat labs to process pigs and send the meat to Second Harvest Heartland. During this time, the Minnesota Pork Board asked Mike to do media interviews because the Pattersons’ farm was directly impacted by the closure of the packing plant. “We were telling our story, but we were also really telling the story of what producers all over the U.S., and pretty heavily in Minnesota, were going through,” Mike said. Mike ended up being inter-
155 feet of adventure Amy Kyllo Family of the Year Wabasha Farm Farm Family of the year Dodge & Fillmore County
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viewed by CNN, PBS NewsHour, Reuters, SharkFarmer TV, MSNBC News, Timeline, National Geographic — which did not publish the story — the Daily Mirror and local television stations FOX 9, KAAL-TV and KTTC News. This year, the Pattersons, who are also active in their local FFA chapter and the community, are being honored as the Goodhue County Farm Family of the Year. “(It is) definitely humbling that our peers saw us as being ... fit for that honor,” Mike said. ... “I know there’s lots of other farms out there. They’re working hard every day and doing great, awesome things.” Mike grew up on a farrow-to-finish operation and at a young age wanted to stay involved in the pork industry. Mike said he remembers writing a letter to himself for FFA saying where he hoped to be in the future.
Farm Family of the Year Houston & Olmsted County Farm Family of the Year Winona County
Pattersons page 3 10 State fair aficionados Byron 13 A fair kind of family Elgin 17 A shining hobby Pine Island