THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 8, 1995 TAG: 9502070102
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JODY R. SNIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
IT WAS 1947, WHEN a Cadillac sold for about $1,500. It also was the first year for the Smithfield Junior Market Hog Show and Sale, which ended with a bang: The champion, 160-pound hog sold for, well, the price of a Cadillac.
The buyer, Joe Luter Jr. of Smithfield Packing, snapped the prize pig away from rival J.D. Gwaltney of Gwaltney of Smithfield Ltd. for $9.37 per pound.
In 1947, the market value of a hog was about 29 cents a pound - about what it is today - fetching just $46 for a 160-pound hog.
So B.S. Griffin Jr., the boy who grew that prize hog, hit pay dirt.
Robert P. Taylor, the Isle of Wight farmer responsible for starting what is now the state's largest and oldest hog show, says the showdown between Luter and Gwaltney was something he'll never forget.
``The two plants were still in competition with each other at that point, and those two men got to bidding against each other and ran the price of that one pig way up. I've never seen anything like it. We loved it,'' Taylor, now 72, recalled recently.
``See, back then, they didn't have the trucks bringing hogs in to the plants like we do today. Those plants thrived on the local hogs that were grown here. And there was a lot of competition for local hogs between the two plants.''
And it is Taylor who is credited with taking hogs out of picked peanut fields, where they ran wild ``cleaning up the fields.'' In 1952, he was one of the first farmers in the county to build individual hog houses.
``That's how the Smithfield Ham got to be so well known,'' he recalled. ``The oil from the peanuts made the meat soft and oily, and it gave the hams flavor.''
Taylor said that when he started farming hogs years ago, his goal was to make as much money raising hogs as he did farming peanuts.
``Some years we've done better, some years we've done worse. Most of the time we've been able to match our hog profits to our peanut profits.''
Taylor also farms about 1,200 acres of peanuts, corn, soybeans, cotton and small grains with his son, Robert Jr. He also raises about 75 head of cattle.
And this year, Taylor will put another notch in his belt when he becomes one of the first contract hog farmers in the county to produce hogs for Smithfield's two packing plants.
For all of Taylor's accomplishments and service to the pork industry, he recently was honored by the Virginia Pork Producers Association with the Virginia Top Pork Producers Award for producers 40 and older.
County Extension Service Agent Robert Goerger said he nominated Taylor, along with the Southeastern Pork Producers Association, because of his strong voice in the pork industry.
``His farm operation has been outstanding in every way. And he's very much a leader in the agriculture community here, not to mention his role at the state level,'' Goerger said.
``Not every farmer takes the time away from their farm operation to serve in leadership roles and speak up for the pork industry.''
Taylor has served as president of these organizations: Southeastern Pork Producers Association, the Southeastern Youth Education Association and the Virginia Peanut Growers. He was also chairman of the Smithfield Junior Market Hog Show and chairman of the Bank of Smithfield board. In 1947, he worked with 4-H, serving as an assistant Extension Service agent.
After almost 50 years of growing and selling hogs, Taylor says he's seen almost everything there is to see in the hog business. Good times and bad times. Fat hogs, lean hogs - and now, city folks who have moved into Isle of Wight County and say they don't want hog farmers as neighbors.
Taylor, a soft-spoken man and fourth-generation hog farmer, recently won his own showdown against the Isle of Wight Defense League, a group that opposes his building a 1,700-hog farm near Benn's Church on Virginia Route 10 in Isle of Wight.
The group fought Taylor's permit from the State Water Control Board but failed.
Even so, Taylor says he doesn't feel like he's won any battles with those who oppose his livelihood.
``I got my toes down in the dirt here. I never felt like I was being kicked out of my own backyard. But the opposition was unexpected because I was going overboard to try to do something to better the hog situation.
``I've been trying to upgrade and keep up on things, but it's getting harder because I'm getting slower and things are going faster.''
Taylor's new farrow-to-finish farm - growing hogs indoors, from birth to market - will have a lagoon to store hog litter until it can be injected into the ground as fertilizer for Taylor's crops.
In addition, a ventilation system is designed to force air from the hog houses back into the woods away from Route 10 and Taylor's neighbors.
Taylor said it saddens him to see the small hog producer go out of business, but that's the way the industry is headed, he said - toward contract farming.
``The individual hog farmer is losing his shirt now with the low prices and the cost of growing corn to feed the hogs. Small operators are having tough times, and that's why some are going to contract farming.
``Hog farmers,'' he added, ``are doing the same thing chicken farmers did 20 years ago.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
A HISTORY WITH HOGS
Robert P. Taylor
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Robert P. Taylor was one of the first farmers to build individual
hog houses. When he started decades ago, his goal was to make as
much money raising hogs as he did farming peanuts.
Robert P. Taylor, a soft-spoken man, is a fourth-generation hog
farmer.
Taylor said hog producers are going out of business or into contract
farming.
Taylor raised four children on the farm. His son, Robert, still
works with him.
by CNB