Maken Bacon Farms

We are Randy and Tom Brown, brothers, owners, and operators of Maken Bacon Farms in Nevada, Ohio. We truly have a family farm with our mother, Anne, keeping the financial side of the operation running smoothly and Randy’s son, Kyle, working as full-time employee. We’ve been farming together since 1951, and today we have a 600 sow farrow to finish operation. This means we have 600 mother pigs that live on our farm and we raise their piglets from the time they are born until they go to market. We also farm 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans.

Like many other farmers around Ohio, the farm is not only our place of business, but also our home. We take great pride in the cleanliness and upkeep of our farm, for us and for our neighbors. We were honored for our efforts by being named a 2005 National Environmental Stewardship Award winner.

Modern technology has allowed us to regulate the temperature in our barns year-round. This barn, where pregnant sows live, has a “cool cell” air conditioning unit that has cool water running through it all the time. The large fans pull the cool air from the cool cell and push it throughout the barn, keeping the pigs comfortable.
In the winter months, the barn is has heaters to keep the pigs warm.

When mother pigs are nearing their delivery time, they are moved to the farrowing, or birthing, room where we place them in a farrowing stall. These stalls were designed to allow the mother to be in a good position during the birthing process and also to protect the piglets from the mother accidentally hurting or laying on them. The lamps hanging down provide heat and a warm place to lie because piglets need to stay warm.