OUR STORY

A Legacy of Three Generations

1976: A family affair of working on the farm. (left to right) Lois, David, Jim, Marty & Scott Phillips

1980: Aerial view of the farm after initial expansion.

1992: Harvest season on the farm.

Our newest farm facility built in 2018, Mulberry Creek Farms.

The past 50+ years has seen a revolution in the pork production business, and our Phillips family has been at the forefront of this revolution. We are honored to help feed our neighbors and community by providing high-quality, delicious pork fed with corn grown straight from our land and fertilized by the pigs raised on it, so you and your family can thrive.

Phillips Family Farms began by following an American dream. In 1967, Jim and Lois Phillips left a 13-year Air Force career to start farming. The perfect piece of land for their journey was purchased, and pigs became the central focus of the farm. The entire labor source for the first 13 years was our family. There were many winter mornings when the sons, Marty, Scott, and David carried teakettles of boiling water to thaw the frozen hog waterers. A lot of things have changed since then, but our desire to provide you with the best quality pork possible is still our goal.

The early days of pork production were exciting ones. We got in on the ground floor of a revolution in the industry. Being one of the first swine operations of its kind in Missouri, our family takes pride in raising a high-quality, healthy product for consumers across the Midwest. We started with no experience, built a 50 stall farrowing house, leased 100 sows that were housed in dirt lots, farrowed 50 sows every 90 days, and sold feeder pigs.

Raising pigs in barns with a controlled environment was considered a radical system at the time. We then expanded to 150 sows and in 1980 completed a new facility with a 500 sow capacity. Also in 1980, Marty Phillips returned to the farm after college and some career time. That same year, we also employed our first non-family member and developed a weekly farrowing schedule. We gradually added nursery and finishing barns, and Scott Phillips returned to the farm full time in 1991, after serving in the Air Force like his father Jim.

Jim passed away in 2001, at which time Scott and Marty became majority owners. Lois continued working in the office until her retirement in 2014. What an incredible journey she had in the industry after nearly 50 years! Since then, two of Marty's children Nathan and Janelle Phillips have joined the farm, both in 2014, and Jessica Mulligan, Scott's daughter in 2023 became a member of the third generation Phillips family farmers. We hope to welcome more in the near future!

Phillips Farms continues to grow, adding employees to our farm family, staying involved in the local community, and remaining active as industry leaders for pork producers and consumers alike. With a strong family heritage and history, we are proud to have a third generation continuing the legacy created 55 years before us.

As we live day by day, our goal is to carry that legacy forward as did the generations before us, and enable the success of additional generations on the very land that we are blessed to call home. We are not owners and managers; we are ultimately stewards of the lands that God has entrusted to us. We continue our commitment to sustainability of our lands, the environment around us, and the community that we live in. Much of the land that we live on today is land our family has been on since 1967.

Our farms continue to be managed with the same morals, values, and dreams that allowed Jim and Lois to succeed. Their story of life, struggle, risk, perseverance, and success is one that so many would find incredible, and we are honored to carry on that legacy at Phillips Family Farms every day.