Walsh tackling IPPA presidency with ‘get-it-done’ attitude

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Whether it’s caring for expectant sows, introducing Peoria County fourth-graders to baby pigs or steering the Illinois Pork Producers Association as its new president, Cheryl Cowser Walsh approaches each task with a positive mindset.

“We do what we have to do to get the job done,” she said.

Walsh took over as the president of the IPPA at the group’s annual meeting and elections on Jan. 30. Josh Maschhoff, of Nashville, was elected vice president/treasurer, and Katie Brown, of Morrisonville, was elected secretary.

“I hope we are able to come together as producers and work together on different issues to make it better for all of us to raise pigs,” Walsh said.

She acknowledged that the past year has been tough for pork producers across Illinois and all over the United States

“We are an industry that has struggled a lot in the last year. Prices have been absolutely terrible. It’s the longest period we’ve gone with these bad prices. I hope that, as an industry, we are able to overcome it,” she said.

Walsh has been on the IPPA board for five years. She lives in rural Princeville, where she and her family operate Cowser Inc. and Cowser Field and Feedlot.

Cowser Inc. includes a sow farm, hay production and cow-calf farm. The field and feedlot operation produces corn and soybeans.

Walsh is joined in the farm operation by her father, his three brothers, Walsh’s brother and a cousin.

As president, Walsh said she will continue to work to find remedies for producers to the fallout from California’s Proposition 12 and to urge lawmakers to work on a new farm bill.

In addition, Walsh’s personal quest is to work with producers on sustainability goals and on ensuring that producers are prepared for any foreign animal disease outbreak.

“I would love to see more of our producers signed up for the Secure Pork Supply Plan and with We Care. We have that constant threat of foreign animal disease and I want us to be as prepared as we can be, here in Illinois and throughout the United States, so that we can still move pigs,” Walsh said.

The Secure Pork Supply Plan is a collaboration among the U.S. swine industry, state pork producer groups, government agencies and land-grant universities.

The SPS Plan is a voluntary program for producers to prepare their farms before a disease outbreak so that animals with no evidence of infection will be able to be moved to processing or other pork production facilities.

Proposition 12 is another priority for Walsh. She said the California law, which mandates space requirements for meat animals and poultry raised outside of the state, has unintended consequences for not just pigs, but the people caring for them.

“One of the biggest concerns for me with Prop 12, that a lot of people forget, if you become Prop 12 compliant, you also risk your employees. It becomes an employee safety issue,” Walsh said.

“I use myself as an example. I am 5 foot 2 inches and 115 pounds. Those sows weigh 400 pounds. They can and do knock people over and injure them. We like having the one-on-one care with gestation stalls versus trying to find that one sow, in a pen of 30 or 40 animals, who’s not eating. We also would have more sows injured.”

Walsh is the fourth female president of the IPPA. She attended Black Hawk College and Western Illinois University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture science.

When Walsh first started attending IPPA meetings and events, she said there were not many women in the industry nor in leadership. That has changed over the years.

“There are more women involved in the ag industry and there are more women in leadership roles. Women have taken a stand and we have shown we can do everything they can do,” Walsh said.

She has been active in the Peoria County Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom program, where she brought baby pigs into fourth-grade classrooms throughout Peoria to introduce children to pigs and pork production.

She and her fiancé, Derek, have five children, including her two daughters, Reagan and Rylie, and Derek’s daughters, Ashlynn and Brinnley, and his son, Ty.