Rob: Innovation is something the gentleman in our next story has being
doing pretty much all his life.
In an Oklahoma profile, we take you to the Oklahoma panhandle to introduce you
to Paul Hitch.
Brian: For over one hundred years, the Hitch name has been synonymous
with agriculture in Oklahoma.
Paul Hitch has seen first-hand how agriculture in the state has
developed.
Paul Hitch: Well, certainly we are doing things a lot differently
in agriculture.
I mean, the small family farm idea, you know, was changing as I was growing
up.
I mean there were family farms, but they were becoming less and less
small.
Brian: Paul's father, Henry, knew that in order to be successful at
farming, they needed to get the most out of what the land and surrounding
areas had to offer, thus creating the H C Hitch Feed Yard, in Guymon,
which is now just one of three within the company.
Hitch: We started growing corn every year.
Well if you have a corn crop every year, you can feed cattle, because now
you've got a reliable supply of feed; and you're right here sitting in
Oklahoma, and Texas is next door, so you've got plenty of places to buy
feeder cattle.
So, dad built a feedlot and we started feeding cattle.
Other people did too, we weren't alone in this regard, but we were one of
the first.
Brian: While cattle proved to be the starting ground for the Hitch family, it
was Paul who had the foresight to expand into the pork industry.
Hitch: We ended up talking with Seaboard when they were initially setting up.
We built 28 barns and rented them to Seaboard.
And we made them legitimate in the eyes of the community, by
basically building a bunch of barns and renting to them.
It looked like there was money to be made in pigs.
Brian: Paul knew that in order to make this venture a success, he had to find
a way to work it into their existing farming operations.
What was once dry-land wheat is now 3 finishing barns, and a lagoon.
Hitch: Each of the barns holds about a thousand pigs.
So I can have 3 finishing barns with 3,000 pigs, and the lagoon.
And, I take the water out of the lagoon and put it back on the circle, and I
can sell one million dollars worth of pigs.
So, which is more beneficial to the community, one million
dollars worth of pigs, or five hundred dollars worth of wheat?
Brian: Now, Hitch Enterprises and Seaboard Farms are two of the
largest businesses in the Oklahoma panhandle; and Paul says looking back, it
was a smart investment.
Hitch: I gave up a lot of money, to get pork; but I didn't give up a lot of
production of other things.
I didn't have to discard something, in order to produce pigs.
And I think that, you don't get those kinds of opportunities, to have a
whole bunch of something and not give up a whole bunch of other things.
You don't get those chances very often; and to me, it's something a guy
ought to do.
Brian: And not very often do you find leaders with the foresight and
ingenuity to make it happen.
Rob: Paul Hitch, along with Kim Brock, both were honored this past weekend
with an induction into Oklahoma's Pork Council Hall of Fame.