Mike Richner
Hometown: Pleasant Hope, Mo.
Family: Wife, Jan; sons, Jordan and Kyle.
In Town: Mike is the only sales representative for Missouri Livestock Supplements in Brighton, Mo. They manufacture a variety of cooked molasses supplements for cattle, sheep, goats, equine, and deer using all-natural ingredients, such as probiotics and essential oils. “If it is a ruminant we can feed it,” exclaimed Mike. “My main job is to make the sales contacts,” Mike said he enjoys the freedom of working for a small company and works close with owner, Larry Lane.
“We can make corporate decisions in an office in Brighton, Mo., in 10 to 15 minutes or on the phone; we do not have to go through a bunch of channels,” Mike commented.
In the Country: Mike started showing registered horned Herford cattle as a young boy, and in 1975 he exhibited the Grand Champion Carcass Steer at the Ozark Empire Fair in Springfield, Mo.
He transitioned to raising hogs when he was a freshman in high school when he won a pig at a pig scramble.
“We bred that gilt and raised a litter of pigs. That is how I got interested in hogs and before I knew it I had 40 sows when I was a senior in high school,” Mike recalled.
He eventually downsized his operation but continued to raise a few show pigs.
Mike shifted his operation from farrowing sows to finishing pigs for individuals. Demand drives the number of pigs he will feed; it ranges from five to 10 pigs each year.
“I do not feed medication or use antibiotics, and the pigs are on dirt,” Mike said. “I will normally buy these pigs at 40 to 60 pounds, depending on where I locate them, and I will put them on a 16-percent ground feed ration-full feed. I will hit them a couple times with dewormer.”
When the hogs reach slaughter weight he will take them to Turner Meat Processing in Fair Grove, Mo., to be processed for his customers.
