Dedicated farmer and pork industry leader who developed the TRULINE Genetics swine stock that have been sold to 48 states and 25 foreign countries, helped the National Swine Improvement Federation (NSIF), standardize testing methods and terminology for swine genetic testing, expert livestock judge and accomplished Maine-Anjou cattle breeder.
Born 1939 | Artist: Richard Steward Halstead (born 1947)
Impact & Accomplishments
Everett Forkner returned to his family’s farm in southern Missouri after graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1961. Under his direction, the family operation—which came to be known as Forkner Family Farms—grew to 2,000 acres of crops, a swine genetics company, a premium pork marketing branch, and a purebred cattle operation.
Forkner pioneered on-farm swine performance testing in the early ‘60s, recording growth and using ultrasound to measure and evaluate muscle and fat composition. He produced more than a dozen national champion breeding hogs, including the World Record Selling Boar at the 1973 National Barrow Show (NBS). Serving in leadership roles with the National Swine Improvement Federation (NSIF), Forkner helped standardize testing methods and terminology for swine genetic testing.
In 1982, he was named the NSIF Seedstock Producer of the Year. An aggressive international marketer of Missouri livestock, he has sold TRULINE Genetics swine stock to 48 states and 25 foreign countries. He exhibited the National Barrow Show Grand Champion Carcass Truckload with Duroc barrows in 2004 and was inducted into the NBS Hall of Fame in 2010.
In 2005, Everett Forkner became chair of the National Pork Board (NPB) Animal Science Research Committee, with accomplishments including: completing the swine genome sequence, reducing the cooking temperature for fresh pork to 145 degrees, and increasing sow longevity. In 2011, he was named president of the NPB.
Maintaining leadership in the cattle industry as well, he was selected as the 2009 American Maine-Anjou Breeder of the Year and the breed’s 2012 Seedstock Producer of the Year. Everett Forkner is an avid supporter of agricultural youth, having provided hundreds of livestock judging workouts at the family farms, as well as livestock judging classes at the American Royal (for twenty consecutive years) and other Midwest livestock judging events.
Did You Know?
In 1969, Forkner was named Missouri Livestock Person of the Year by the Missouri University Block and Bridle Club – only eight years after his graduation – and was again chosen to receive this honor in 2015. He was the first Animal Sciences alumnus at the University of Missouri to receive a Column Award – the college’s highest honor. He provided founder animals for Mizzou’s National Institutes of Health Swine Resource and Research Center. In April 2020, he was inducted into the National Pork Producers Council Hall of Fame.
Forkner was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records for receiving the highest price ever paid for a pig. $38,000 for a champion Duroc boar sold to Soga-No-Yo Swine Farms of Hiratsuka, Japan, at Austin, Minnesota, on September 11, 1973.
Courtesy of KOAM TV. November 16, 2020
Portrait of a Stockman: Everett Forkner, Missouri pork producer. Video courtesy of Pork Checkoff November 16, 2020.
Everett Forkner, president of the National Pork Board, addresses youth during the final drive of the 2011 American Royal. Video courtesy of National Swine Registry 2011.
Everett Forkner of Forkner Farms, Inc., Truline Genetics, and Truline Pork discusses the challenge of going antibiotic free and the assitance Alltech gave him in the transition. Video courtesy of Alltech April 16, 2019