PITTSFIELD ROTARY CLUB   5-30-07     District 6460

Visiting Rotarian:  Joe Cook, Louisiana, MO

Invitation was received from Rotary Club of Peoria for the installation of DG Ron Ragan.  Cost $35.00/ person, reservations by Jun 15.  See Randy if you want to go.

Pig Day Bar-B-Que  team needs to get started on planning how to win…WHO is the leader???  Who will cook what??? We need to regain our Rotary Honor by winning….THINK!!! let us know if you can participate…..we’ve 1 entrant so far…..

Hospital Golf Outing is June 8…..

Board meeting June 7 at noon at FSB….BYOBag if you want to eat….

27    June… Annual Meeting at 6:30 at Old Orchard….spouses welcome…(no meeting that noon)….plan now to attend….wear your Paul  Harris medals……

Program:  Linda Bradshaw introduced Jeff Galle, Past President of Illinois Pork Producers, Head of John  Wood Agricultural Programs, on National Pork Producers Council….Phd University of Illinois.  (and a REALLY nice guy).

Jeff said that the pork industry is different than it was 25 years ago here….. Difference is traceable to both consumers and other interests.  The Pork meat has been changed to meet the public’s expectations  of lower fat.  They have produced a new product.----PORK—the other white meat!!  

Pork tenderloin today is as lean as skinless chicken breast.

Much of the breeding and research  work was done at the University of Illinois , which ranks among the top 10 universities in the world!!

The 6 most common cuts of pork sold today are 16 percent less in fat than they were 15 years ago.  

Today, animal care is more environmentally controlled, which has led to improving efficiency and making a more affordable product for the consumer.  It also helps protect the health of the food supply and health of the animals.

There has been considerable change through genetics, seeking optimum traits. Nutritional changes have been made, using a lot of the by-product of the processing of corn for alcohol and soybeans for bio-diesel.

New methods of disposing of the effluent are being developed.  Farmers were the original recyclers….growing crops, feeding it through livestock and putting the effluent back on the land to grow more crops…..

Pork industry consumes about 10 percent of both the corn and soybean crop

That amounts to 94 M bushels of corn and 24 M bushels of soybeans consumed in Illinois.

Illinois is 4^th in Pork Production, producing 4.1 Million pigs on 3400 hog farms

Bringing in 1.9 Billion $$ in income and paying about $176 million in taxes, about $18,500 /farm……

About 1/3 of all workers in the swine industry have college degrees

39 percent of the US population eats PORK,  31 %poultry….25% beef, and 5 % sheep

Pork exports were $2.86 Billion last year….Thanks Jeff….lots of INFO about PORK