South Dakota Ag Connection - 'Farming Families' Owners Earn Pork Promoter Award

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'Farming Families' Owners Earn Pork Promoter Award
South Dakota Ag Connection - 02/19/2020

The South Dakota Pork Producers Council (SDPPC) honored Garret and Mindy Gross of Sioux Falls, South Dakota with the 6th Annual Pork Promoter of the Year Award at the Master Pork Producers Banquet.

"This is the sixth year for this award that South Dakota Pork Producers Council is offering to recognize their peers. The award was designed to recognize an individual or family, organization, company or county group who has done an outstanding job promoting pork and/or the pork industry on a local, state or regional level. We are proud to honor him with this award, he is willing to go above and beyond to help promote pork!," commented SDPPC executive board member and association services and membership committee chairman, Bill Larsen of Wolsey.

Garrett and Mindy are the founders of AGE Media which is a mutlti-media production company based in Sioux Falls. They specialize in telling the stories of people, families, businesses and organizations. They produce the Farming Families publications which tell the story of the people and families who farm in several counties in southeast South Dakota and northwest Iowa. For the past 3 years, Garrett and Mindy have featured over 120 farm families in the region and many have been pork producers. Garrett and MIndy are also co-founders of PorkPalooza which is a community festival held in Sioux Falls where the goal is to promote local music, local BBQ, local beer and local pork producers. The first two years of the event have been a huge success with over 20,000 attendees and $12,000 given to Feeding South Dakota on behalf of the event. PorkPalooza III will take place this year on May 29-30th in Sioux Falls and the organizers anticipate attendance to exceed the first two years.

Garrett and Mindy live in Sioux Falls with their 3 daughters, Ava (13), Elyse (10) and Grace (6). Garrett is a Mitchell native and a graduate of Augustana and Mindy is a Crooks native and graduate of SDSU. Although they don't directly farm themselves, they enjoy running their family business and in the process feature and connect with many family farms in the region.

The South Dakota Pork Producers Council (SDPPC) was created in 1954 to responsibly serve, support and enhance the success of the South Dakota pork production industry. Along with managing industry issues and improving the image of the pork industry, the South Dakota Pork Producers Council works to insure a safe, wholesome product for the consumer's confident consumption.

South Dakota's pork producers have 170,000 sows and they produce 339,000 farrowings per year. South Dakota is ranked #9 in pork production and ranks #2 in pigs per sow. South Dakota ranks 9th nationally in number of pigs born in the state. South Dakota's pork industry contributes $2.1 billion overall economic impact of SD's Swine Industry. Also, South Dakota pork industry contributes $17.4 million in total tax revenue.

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