Celebrating Pork During Ag Day at the Capitol

Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Pork Council got to celebrate one of our favorite days of the year: Oklahoma Agriculture Day at the State Capitol. Led by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ODAFF), Ag Day brings together hundreds of agricultural advocates to showcase our state's diverse food and fiber system while educating policymakers during the legislative session.

Building on the continued success of our build-your-own pork charcuterie station, this year the Oklahoma Pork Council worked with a new charcuterie vendor called "SAVOR OKC" to offer a jaw-dropping selection of bacon on a stick, ham, prosciutto, salami, chicharrones, a variety of other pork products, cheese, fruits and sweets. In total, Oklahoma Pork's crowd-favorite booth distributed more than 300 pork-focused snacks to legislators, staff, and Capitol visitors. Additionally, we distributed more than 1,000 Oklahoma Pork giveaways like "The Year of Youth in Ag" tote bags, "Life is hard, bacon helps" socks, stickers, squishy pigs, and more. 

Oklahoma Pork board members Joe Locke, Tom Layne, Dr. Suzanne Genova, Roy Cansler, Cathy Vaughan, and Dr. Donna Drebes used serving at our booth as an opportunity to educate visitors about Oklahoma's incredible pork industry. As folks hand-picked their delicious pork snacks from our charcuterie spread, we got a moment to share pork's story in an approachable, bite-sized way. Tyson producer Hannah Trujillo and Oklahoma Pork's soon-to-be summer interns Chyann Emerson and Ethan Drake also kindly joined us to promote pork in the scenic State Capitol Rotunda. All together, this biggest-ever crew of pork industry Ag Day volunteers made an impressive impact serving our industry. 

Highlights from Ag Day 2025 included: sharing framed photos from the Oklahoma Youth Expo (OYE) Legislative Show with several policymakers who chose to show pigs; an interesting meeting with Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Casey Murdock about pork priorities this session; and, listening into the official Agricultural Day proclamation on the House of Representatives floor. 

Thank you to our members who represented Oklahoma's pork producers at this exciting event, and thank you to our members who produce a quality product that is easy to celebrate! 

Talking Pork and Sharing Pork in Stillwater

Stillwater is a very special place to the Oklahoma Pork Council. Thanks to decades of collaboration with Oklahoma State University (OSU), and the town serving as "home" at some point for many of our leaders - both the campus and the community are forever important to the pork industry’s success in our state. 

So it isn’t surprising our team welcomes any chance to head up the highway wearing America’s brightest orange. This week, Oklahoma Pork’s Kylee Deniz and Shay Stegmann made the most of a Stillwater day trip by educating young people about pork production and donating pork to a deserving organization just in time for Easter. 

Kylee enjoyed the opportunity to present in Dr. Jerry Fitch’s capstone animal science course for soon-to-graduate seniors. Kylee took this opportunity to educate students about Oklahoma's swine industry, the work of our organization, and the anti-pork animal activism happening right here in Oklahoma. As an extra treat, Kylee and Shay also shared fun Oklahoma Pork hats and socks with these future leaders of our state's agriculture industry. 

While in the Stillwater area, Kylee and Shay also visited the “Cardinal’s Love for the Homeless” charity with a special Easter donation of protein-packed pork sticks and smoked and custom sliced hams from Ralph's Packing Company in Perkins. "Cardinal's Love for the Homeless" is a local nonprofit organization meets many needs of Stillwater area residents experiencing homelessness by providing food, supplies, and other supports throughout the year. The Oklahoma Pork Council first interacted with this group during our Give-A-Ham community feed in Stillwater last December, and we look forward to supporting their mission to feed and care for many folks in Payne County.

Championing Oklahoma Pork in Washington, DC

Twice per year, the Oklahoma Pork Council participates in the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) Legislative Action Conference (LAC). For this week's Spring LAC 2025, Oklahoma was well represented by board president Joe Locke - director of sow operations for Tyson Foods, Joe Popplewell - pod manager for Tyson Foods, and Rick Sappington - vice president and general manager at Seaboard Foods. Oklahoma Pork staff Kylee Deniz and Ashton Mese Johnston enjoyed coordinating the trip, helping prepare our farmers, and representing Oklahoma alongside these three talented pork leaders.

Two fun highlights that made this DC fly-in different than others included an interesting collaboration with our friends at the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and a special Oklahoma meeting at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Overall, Oklahoma’s LAC participants had a meaningful trip connecting with our federal representatives. The Oklahoma Pork Council remains proud of strong relationships with our elected and appointed officials and fortunate to serve as a resource to help their offices support pork producers.

Stunning Magazine Arriving in Mailboxes

Every spring, the Oklahoma Pork Council releases our annual "Pork Pages" magazine that beautifully highlights the previous year. The 2025 publication has truly been a labor of love, and we are very excited this picture-perfect recap of 2024 has been appearing in member mailboxes this week.

Oklahoma Pork's Shay Stegmann did not have an easy assignment to create Pork Pages over the past few months. She had to skillfully narrow dozens of events and hundreds of her own stunning photographs to best showcase just some of what made 2024 incredibly special for Oklahoma's pork industry. Working to include content from all four of Oklahoma Pork's four strategic intentions, we hope every member finds stories they are proud to connect with in the 40+ pages of this annual report. Beyond her impressive skills behind a camera, Pork Pages also demonstrates Shay's modern and inviting graphic design style with layouts and imagery to keep readers engaged from cover to cover.

Speaking of the cover, look closely at the announcement graphic above to see the newest edition of Pork Pages prominently features Hugo Hidalgo Pacheco of The HANOR Company front and center. Hugo, who serves as a compliance manager with HANOR, was featured in an educational video Shay created about the extremely technical work required of T.N. Visa-holders within Oklahoma pork production. A heartfelt thank you to Hugo and our friends at HANOR for opening their barn doors for the videos and photos Shay created last year to help tell pork's important story well.

As the world - and the Oklahoma Pork Council - continues to focus most on digital content, we are still proud to create this magazine each year that our members can physically hold and share within your communities. Thank you to Shay and the members of our staff and board who helped bring the 2025 Pork Pages masterpiece to life. Each of our members should receive a physical copy this week, but you can also click here to check out the digital copy of Pork Pages 2025 on our website!

Seiling Event Promotes Home Grown Pork

Recently, we had a picture perfect example of how these outreach dollars connect consumers with our industry at a truly grassroots level. Through our “Pork Donation Request” webpage, an outreach proposal came in to sponsor the Seiling FFA Grill-n-Chill Barbeque Cookoff on April 5, 2025. The request was for Oklahoma Pork to provide ribs for FFA students from various chapters to grill for evaluation as they improve their pit master skills. 

Not only is Seiling a proud pork production community with several pig farms nearby, but it also happens to be the hometown of our wonderful board member Roy Cansler of Seaboard Foods. So fulfilling this request meant that Roy, with assistance from Oklahoma Pork’s Matti Carlile, was able to donate 24 racks of Prairie Fresh pork ribs he helped produce directly back into his own community. What a beautiful full circle opportunity to tell pork’s Oklahoma grown story! Shout out to Seiling agriculture education instructor Ben Fisher for making the request, and for starting this fun competition to train a new generation of expert pork cooks. 

If you have a cool idea for Oklahoma Pork partnering to donate products in your hometown, click here to fill out the outreach request form for 2025. Stay tuned for other outreach stories that will make you even more proud to help feed your neighbors in Oklahoma and around the globe!

Oklahoma Pork Hosts Impactful Training

Oklahoma Pork's board and staff are always looking to "level up" our skills to better serve our members. So thanks in part to support from the National Pork Board, three Oklahoma Pork representatives took their communications expertise one step higher this week with an intensive two-day workshop hosted by nationally renowned Micah "Spike" Craven of Integrity Communications.

Dr. Suzanne Genova, Matti Carlile, and Ashton Mese Johnston were three of eight total participants who spent Tuesday and Wednesday this week stepping out of their comfort zones to grow as passionate advocates for Oklahoma's pork industry.

The Oklahoma Pork Council was grateful for participation from five other industry leaders who work in swine production throughout our region, including: Jesse Heimer - National Pork Board member and show pig producer from Missouri; Grace Jacobson - Seaboard Foods communications specialist based in Kansas City; Anthony Russo - AcuFast key account manager from Missouri; Mallory Brew - Alltech U.S. pork marketing lead based in Texas; and, Andrew Howerton - Novus International sales manager from Missouri.

Promoting Pork with MIO Collaboration

On Thursday, the Oklahoma Pork Council and the Made in Oklahoma (MIO) Coalition sponsored another free pork lunch event and shopper sweepstakes to fill bellies with pork and help more Oklahomans know that shopping local can absolutely include quality pork products found in their local meat cases.

Despite rainy conditions, more than 300 Edmond Uptown Grocery shoppers enjoyed free Prairie Fresh pulled pork sandwiches provided by the Oklahoma Pork Council and cooked by our friends at Head Country BBQ. Like similar collaborations Oklahoma Pork has done with MIO in the past, one lucky shopper also got to speed through seven minutes filling her cart with MIO groceries like Daily's Bacon, Prairie Fresh pork chops, and more. After having hosted several of these exciting "Supermarket Sweep" type contests throughout the past two years, our team was glad to see our shopper Sandy fill her cart with tons of pork as part of her $1,000 haul in seven quick minutes.

"Even when weather moves us inside like today, we have almost perfected engaging grocery shoppers through these fun Made in Oklahoma collaborations," Kylee Deniz shared. "We let the pork products - like our tasty Prairie Fresh sliders served today - speak for themselves as we connect with hundreds of consumers in their hometown grocery stores. These free lunches create a special opportunity to remind people that pig farmers care about their customers and are proud of what they produce."

If you are interested in helping the Oklahoma Pork Council host a free lunch event in your community, click here to let us know.

Investing in Future Ag Leaders Through OYE

We are almost ready to close the book on another successful Oklahoma Youth Expo (OYE), but as the show wrapped up last weekend we want to share a few more ways the Oklahoma Pork Council celebrated young swine enthusiasts.

OYE's Grand Drive is famous for its over-the-top celebration of young people who won their breed divisions throughout Market Week of the show. Envision fireworks, a fog machine, and around 40 grinning students emerging from a limousine in the middle of a livestock arena. If you haven't experienced the rock-concert-energy of the OYE Grand Drive for yourself, consider adding it to your bucket list. This year's Grand Drive excitement was not only special as the last one held in the historic Jim Norick Arena, but also because it marked a new milestone for Oklahoma's pork industry. 

For the first time in history, Oklahoma's commercial pork industry and our state's show pig community perfectly embodied our "One Pork" collaboration through a simple act. Joe Locke, president of the Oklahoma Pork Council, presented Kaleb Dorr of the Wagoner FFA Chapter with the Grand Champion Market Hog trophy. In a heartfelt moment as the arena erupted in cheers for Kaleb and his Hampshire barrow, Joe got to represent all producers cheering for a pig-loving student to achieve his dream. Seeing both special segments of Oklahoma's dynamic pork industry together will be a moment we will long remember. Thank you to Joe for leading out front and actively supporting the 4-H and FFA students who will one day run the pork industry. 

In addition to the Grand Drive fun, each year the Oklahoma Pork Council sponsors academic scholarships for graduating livestock exhibitors who will pursue higher education. The two recipients of our 2025 $1,000 Oklahoma Pork Council OYE scholarships were Dade DeLozier from Adair and Macyn Olson from Owasso. Additionally, all top five participants in the Oklahoma Pork Partners Derby received scholarships and recognition from the Oklahoma Pork Council.

To close out the show, the Oklahoma Pork Council proudly donated more than $15,000 in support during the OYE Sale of Champions. We helped purchase multiple barrows, including several in partnership with our friends at Oklahoma Farm Bureau and Blue & Gold Sausage Co. We also use the auction as an opportunity to reward swine exhibitors who have completed PQA+ or YQCA certifications by "adding on" supplemental funds to their winning bids. Time, support, and financial investments in so many pork-loving students made OYE 2025 a huge success. Want to get all the OYE "feels" in 60-seconds? Click here to watch Oklahoma Pork's quick-fire highlight video made by the talented Shay Stegmann.

Adding All-Star Interns to Team Pork

With our investment in the next generation of agricultural leaders continuing to be a key priority at the Oklahoma Pork Council, we are thrilled to announce the two amazing college students who will join our team for the upcoming summer. Both of these young people wowed us during our collegiate leadership experience last fall, and they also excelled throughout the highly competitive internship selection process that began with 175 interested students. 

Chyann Emerson is an agribusiness and agricultural communications junior at Oklahoma State University (OSU). Growing up in Tuttle, Oklahoma, Chyann enjoyed showing pigs as part of her highly successful FFA involvement. After high school, Chyann judged livestock at Redlands Community College where she earned associate's degrees in animal science and communications. Now at OSU, Chyann is a member of the livestock judging team, she serves as the youth livestock coordinator intern, and she participated in Pork Industry Group last fall. 

Ethan Drake is an agriculture education junior at OSU. He grew up working on several farms and local businesses near his home of Mountain Grove, Missouri. Ethan's involvement with the pork industry began as a show pig exhibitor in FFA, and he continues to be active in a variety of livestock and community organizations. Ethan earned associate degrees in animal science and agriculture education from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. At NEO, he was active in livestock judging and more. Since transferring to OSU, Ethan has been involved in Pork Industry Group and works at Noble County Meats. 

Our team is counting down the days until Chyann and Ethan begin their summer of service to Oklahoma pork producers!

Legislators Show Pigs Between Votes at Capitol

We have reached the half-way point of session at the State Capitol. So, this week's "Legislative and Celebrity Showmanship" at the Oklahoma Youth Expo (OYE) provided a perfect field trip to get many of our state leaders directly in touch with amazing students and their livestock projects. 

OYE truly incorporated all of Oklahoma Pork's four strategic intentions, as this chance to connect with legislators about pigs served as a wonderful "Freedom to Operate" touchpoint. Chaotic, educational, and fun are all words that describe the experience when around 50 elected officials and other Oklahoma leaders took direction from 4-H and FFA members from their districts who coached them on how to best present their animals to the judges. What a perfect reminder to these folks about the importance of agriculture and investing in our students.

The Oklahoma Pork Council shares a swine-loving shout out to Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, House Agriculture Chairman Kenton Patzkowsky, OSU Interim President Jim Hess, and the other leaders who chose pigs for their time in the show ring. State Senator Chuck Hall from Perry was named champion swine showman, with Pro Tem Paxton winning overall Legislative Showman!