Melvin Diehl has raised hogs for four decades

[Editor’s note: Find more stories in The Southeast Iowa Union’s Salute to Pork Producers on pages 6 and 7.]

FAIRFIELD – Jefferson County resident Melvin Diehl has raised hogs his whole life, from the time he was a boy on his family farm up to the present day of raising them as a contract feeder.

Melvin and his son Casey raise hogs for Eichelberger Farms, based in Wayland. One of the perks of being a contract feeder is that Melvin and Casey get to keep the hog manure to use on their crops. They test their soil for nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, and apply manure on areas that are lacking those nutrients. Melvin said that they don’t have to purchase commercial fertilizer, and the hog manure raises the yield of their corn and soybeans.

“We are seeing 10-15 bushels per acre of corn higher compared to commercial fertilizer,” Melvin said. “We don’t fertilize beans, but we see that residual carry over into the next year, so we’re seeing better yields with hog manure on both corn and beans.”

Melvin said he prefers contract feeding because of the stable price he gets and because of the manure. He said it’s nice not to have his livelihood depend so much on the ups and downs of the market, like it was when he owned his own hogs.

Melvin raised his own hogs and sold them to a packing plant, but that changed in 1998 when the industry was saturated with so many hogs that the plants couldn’t process them all, and the price of hogs kept falling and falling.

“We lost a lot of hog farmers that year,” Melvin said. “We had to refinance the farm to pay for the losses the hogs were generating.”

Melvin said he likes contract feeding much better because he’s guaranteed so many dollars per pig. He doesn’t have to worry about the futures market, and he doesn’t have to “load hogs in the middle of the night.”

Melvin comes from a long line of farmers, and his family has farmed in the area ever since Iowa became a state in 1846.

“When I was young, I hoped I would be a farmer,” Melvin said. “I knew that college wasn’t my thing.”

Melvin graduated from Fairfield High School in 1975, and went to work at a factory.

“I knew I didn’t want to spend my life doing that,” he said.

During a recession in the late 1970s, Melvin got laid off. He viewed the layoff as an opportunity to switch careers, so he came back to work for a local elevator and begin farming. Today, Melvin lives northeast of Fairfield and south of Pleasant Plain. He and his wife Judy own 800 acres, and rent other farmland.

Melvin gives back to the community in a number of ways, such as providing enclosed trailers for delivering Christmas food boxes from The Lord’s Cupboard to senior sites. He’s also a member of Jefferson County Pork Producers, and helps grill at the organization’s events such as the Barnyard Bash, First-Responders Appreciation Picnic, and many others. For more than 30 years, he and other Jefferson County Pork Producers have grilled at the Iowa Pork Producers’ tent at the state fair.

Melvin splits his time between farms and hog buildings in Jefferson, Washington and Van Buren counties. He said he likes getting to work with his son Casey, who makes most of the day-to-day decisions on the farm, while Melvin helps out wherever he’s needed. He also enjoys getting to spend time with his grandkids, like when they join him for rides in the tractor.

“I’m trying to cut back, but my wife says I’ll never quit farming,” Melvin said. “It’s hard to take time off, because I can see all the work that needs to be done.”

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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