Funding Pork Sustainability

Pork producers can get paid for adopting sustainable practices.

- By Courtney Leeper Girgis

Dale Stevermer credits his father with making the greatest jump in efficiency on the family farm: bringing pigs inside the barn.

“We went from a whole-herd feed efficiency of 4 pounds of feed to get 1 pound of pig out the door to now we’re in the 2½-pound range,” said Stevermer, who owns Trails End Farm in south-central Minnesota with his wife, Lori.

About eight years ago the Stevermers stopped farrowing sows and instead solely custom-finish pigs. At the same time they fully transitioned to no-till on all 450 of their corn and soybean acres. They also grow cover crops on about 90% of the land and have added solar panels to offset electricity costs.

All these changes were driven by a desire to do more with less, Stevermer said. He said he remains open to changes that further reduce resource use while maintaining or improving production and, in today’s carbon-conscious market, put numbers to his farm’s sustainability story.

His latest tool is funding from a $20 million dollar grant the USDA’s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities Program awarded to the National Pork Board and six partners in September 2022. In 2025, the USDA renamed the program Advancing Markets for Producers.

The Grant

The Advancing U.S. Pork Sustainability and Market Value grant “is designed to increase the sustainability of U.S. pork products by advancing sustainable agriculture practices,” the National Pork Board said. Participating producers receive payments for adopting recommended sustainable practices. The grant is open to pork producers in 12 Midwest states.

Pork Cares Farm Impact Report

The first step to apply for the grant is to request a Pork Cares Farm Impact Report from the National Pork Board. This can be done anytime at porkcheckoff.org/grant.