RALEIGH – Brandon Warren of Clinton has been elected president of the North Carolina Pork Council Board of Directors. Warren has served on the N.C. Pork Council board since 2010 and served as vice president last year. Warren’s multi-generational family farm includes row crops, a large herd of beef cattle and a 3,300-sow, farrow-to-finish operation.
Everett Johnson of Siloam was elected vice-president. Johnson has been raising hogs with his brother since 1985. He has served on the N.C. Pork Council board since 2003 and has served as secretary/treasurer for the past eight years.
Gaye Crowther of Tabor City was elected secretary-treasurer. Crowther owns Seawright Farms, a farrow-to-wean operation, and a sow farm, Sea Gro. Her farming operations also include Sea Blu (40 acres of blueberries), and a cow-calf operation.
Mark Daughtry of Clinton will continue to serve on the board as the immediate past president. Daughtry is a Clinton hog farmer and sow production manager for Prestage Farms. He has been a member of the N.C. Pork Council board since 2011.
In addition to the officers, five new board members were elected to represent three of the board’s four districts. Each representative will serve for three years. Three other members were re-elected for a second term.
Chris Conser of Mount Pleasant was elected to represent District 1. He works with his wife and in-laws on their 1,000-acre farm, which includes 2,200 sows, plus poultry and beef cattle. In addition to traditional farming, Chris is co-owner of a wedding venue that the family operates as agritourism on the working farm.
Greg Simmons of Kinston was elected to represent District 3. He has been with Maxwell Foods since 1994 serving as a nursery/ finishing serviceman. His responsibilities include all aspects of swine management on contract farms from wean to finish.
Tracy Woodard of Snow Hill was elected to represent District 3. He is employed with Maxwell Foods where he supervises their biological laboratories and works with the sow division facilitating their artificial breeding program.
Ray Cooke of Kenansville will represent District 4. He is a production director with Smithfield Hog Production where he has worked for the past 27 years. He has served in several production-related management positions in both sow production and grow out.
Jerry Hairr of Clinton will also represent District 4. He has worked in all areas of farm management and production management. Today, Hairr is the production development and organizational improvement manager for Smithfield’s South-Central region.
The following board members were reelected to their districts: Robin Lackey of Hurdle Mills will continue to represent District 1, and Brian Kennedy of Kenansville will represent District 4. Also, Gene Nemecheck, DVM, was reelected to represent associated industries. Jim Lynch of Goldsboro was re-appointed by the board to an at-large position.
Dr. Paula Cray was reappointed to the board to represent the NC State School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Steven Lommel, associate dean and director for the N.C. Agricultural Research Service in N.C. State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has been appointed to represent the college. Lommel replaces Dr. Roger Crickenberger, who retired from the NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Dr. Todd See was also reappointed to represent CALS. Neil Bowman, assistant director of livestock marketing was appointed to the board by Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler to represent the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The N.C. Pork Council board is comprised of 18 district directors elected by the membership. Additional board members include representatives from allied industries and meat processors. Anyone serving on a national pork industry board is included at the state level as well. Representatives of N.C. State University, the N.C. State College of Veterinary Medicine and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services serve as non-voting members of the board.
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