Two executives from Iowa’s livestock industry retired after a combined 80 plus years working in the state. The executive director of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Rich Degner, and his wife, Nancy Degner, the executive director of the Iowa Beef Industry Council put in their last day in the jobs last Wednesday. Both started their careers in Plymouth County — Nancy was a home economics teacher in Le Mars and Rich was a Vocational Agriculture instructor at Rock Valley. Both Degners says they faced many rewarding times, but also some challenges as they touted beer and pork in Iowa and across the country. Nancy says negative news about the beef industry in the media was one of the challenges.

“One really huge one was the e-coli incident out in Washington with the Jack-in-the-Box. When people got sick and died after eating a hamburger that was contaminated with e-coli,” Degner says. “That sent shock waves through our industry and cause concerns with consumers about the safety of beef.” Other beef industry issues during her career included the detection of “mad cow disease”, and three years ago, when some national news media outlets referred to finely textured ground beef as “pink slime”.

Degner says the beef industry has only recently been able to recover from those setbacks. Rich Degner says a challenge he faced was when the pork industry was evolving from the smaller sized producer to the commercial size operations we see today. He says as a result of that change, society dictated the pork industry follow additional environmental government regulations and be more aware of quality assurance.

“I tell people we have this license to operate — which are the regulations that the state of Iowa requires — and then we also have to have a license to basically be able to market our hogs,” Degner says. Both industries saw demand increase with use of check-off program funds to create the “Beef, Its What’s For Dinner” campaign and the “Pork: The Other White Meat” campaign. Rich Degner says one of the big successes for his industry is the Pork Tent at the Iowa State Fair. It’s almost a standard requirement of presidential candidates to stop by the tent and grill some pork chops as part of their campaign.

“Ever since the Iowa Pork Tent opened in 1981, this country has had a president who has been at the Iowa Pork Tent,” Degner says. “And that was an unexpected benefit of creating the Iowa Pork Tent. And it has been really enjoyable for me to watch that and what has occurred over time.” Now that they are retired from touting the benefits of pork and beef, Rich Degner says he wants to pursue doctorate degree. Nancy says she doesn’t have any specific plans, but hopes that she and her husband can enjoy some traveling.

(Radio Iowa)