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- As a fifth generation farmer, growing up on a farm was huge for me. It was great to have those experiences with my grandpa, with my dad every single day and going out and being able to help them and just knowing that they were here. And I think it's great that my children get to experience that, and I think that's very important to show them how we care for those pigs and show them that it's important that we do these things, so one day that they can do it too. (light rock music) I'm Aaron Hinkeldey, and I'm a pig farmer because that's what my grandpa did and that's what my dad did, so that's what I wanted to do, and hopefully one day that's what my children want to do. I graduated from Iowa State in 2010. Right after I graduated, I came home, bought first acreage from my father, 100, 200 acres is what I started with. And then dad decided he was getting old enough that he was gonna retire fully from the farming operation. We established the farm in 1910, so we've been farming for over 100 years. You know, I watched grandpa and dad do things every single day, and I learned things from them and took all those things in. We're always looking to that future generation of farming, providing that quality care to our animals, caring about them, and giving them the individual attention that they need every single day. And same way with the land. We gotta do things to make sure that ground is still fertile and sustainable for the next 100 years. Iowa's farmers care very much about the environment. We're always doing things to improve the way that our ground is cared for and the way that our pigs are cared for. To help out with that environment, we use manure management plan every single time we put manure on those fields. We only put out the certain amount that we need to. That's important to us because that makes the farming sustainable. Our crop side of things, we use precision planting on our planter that gets that seed at the exact right depth, which gives them the best opportunity to grow, because all the corn and soybeans gets used back into production that gets fed back to pigs. I take a lot of pride in providing quality pork for the community. I think it's very important for us to have that interaction. I'm fairly involved in the community I'd say. I coach multiple sports for my children. I am a Diamond Township Trustee, vice president of the Galva Fire Board, a trustee at our local church, and a member of the Cherokee County Pork Producers. It's very important to be involved in your community because the community needs to be sustainable. The community needs to thrive. We count on our communities every single day as farmers, and we care about them as a community and hopefully in turn that they care about us because it's where we live. It's where my family spends most of our time on the farm. It is a job, but it's a lifestyle, you know, and it helps that they enjoy farming also and coming out to the field or coming out to the hog barns and helping me if I need help, and learning about the farming operation. We couldn't raise hags without the family support in this. Knowing that I provide that quality pork, knowing that I provide corn and soybeans, and I take a lot of pride in knowing that we've been doing this for over 100 years. Farming is first in our family, and it's definitely something that we want to continue in our family.