Bartels Receive Pork All-American Award

Neil and Tammy Bartel, of Mountain Lake, Minnesota have been awarded the Pork All-American Award for 2000. The Pork All-American Award is one of the highest honors pork producers can achieve, and is awarded annually to only one pork producer per state. This award is earned through superior achievements in swine production, community leadership, and industry involvement.

The Bartels were nominated for this award by Dr. Tom Wetzel, of the South Central Veterinary Associates in Wells, Minnesota. Dr. Wetzel serves as a consulting veterinarian for the Bartels, where they also earned the top honors for the most pigs produced per sow per year among the producers working with South Central Veterinary Associates.

The Bartels have been pork producers for 22 years, and have been Babcock customers since 1984. They use Babcock's Closed Herd™ breeding program with A.I., and have achieved a farrowing rate of 89.6 percent, and 24.1 pigs weaned per mated female per year, with an average of 11 pigs born alive.

Neil and Tammy are participants in a Farmland Foods and University of Minnesota food safety study that monitors the hogs as they move through the Bartels' production system, to the slaughter plant. The Bartels also test both soil and manure to accurately fertilize their land, and are recipients of the River Friendly Farmer Award for their efforts in environmental stewardship.

Pork All-American Family
Neil and Tammy Bartel, with their children, Lance, Lucas, Nicole, and Lindsay (left to right)