Midway down winding Reynolds Creek Road, where the pavement ends and the gravel begins, lies Jesse Shoopman’s hog farm. It’s a 2,400-hog operation, which lies in sharp contrast to the quaint isolation of the Reynolds Creek Valley.
“There never seems to be much going on here,” said Shoopman. “No out-of-the ordinary stuff.”
Shoopman lives in a ranch-style house, set back in the “holler” with his wife Glenda, and daughters, Adrena and Michelle. Below the house are the hog barns, the gestation barn, farrowing house, nursery, growing house and finishing barn.
Shoopman’s farm is a complete operation, from the piglet’s birth up to its market-ready weight of 240 pounds. He ships a load of pigs to market every week.
“It’s profitable. ‘Course I’ve worked hard for it,” says Shoopman. “All I know to do is work; I’ve never done anything but farm.”
“Jesse Shoopman is the best hog farmer in Casey County,” said Steve Davis, the county agent.
The feeding, although mostly mechanized, takes up much of Shoopman’s day. He has help from two full-time hired men, Max Dunlap and Victor Luttrell.
Farrowing is the most crucial point of a hog operation. Shoopman often gets up several times a night to check on sows that are “pigging.” Some piglets are stillborn, some die from disease and others are crushed by the sow.
The Reynolds Creek valley has the unique smell of a hog farm – the smell of money, as some hog farmers put it.
