Our staff at the Oklahoma Pork Council enjoyed an educational opportunity to meet with key decision makers from the Smithfield Foods Midwest Pork Division. Organized by longtime Oklahoma Pork supporter Conley Nelson as he leads his retirement transition over the coming months, the meeting proved to be a meaningful connection with one of our state's largest pork production systems.

Conley, who serves as Midwest General Manager for Smithfield Foods, was joined by his successor Nick Gilliland who currently works for Smithfield Foods in Iowa, Smithfield's Oklahoma Production Manager Travis Vaughan, and Oklahoma Pork's newest board member Jaye Schuelke-Daily. All four of these Smithfield leaders shared more about their own backgrounds before Conley provided Oklahoma Pork's full staff with an informative presentation on the Midwest segment of Smithfield's business - including opportunities for stronger cooperation with Oklahoma Pork. Together, our four person Oklahoma Pork Council team then presented more about current work within all four of our organization's strategic intentions and an update on the animal activists targeting pork production in our state.

Spending a morning learning from these impressive pork producers was time incredibly well spent for our team. Thank you to these hard-working folks from Smithfield for making the trip to visit us!