Illinois Pork Expo covers national, state topics

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — With U.S. and Illinois pork producers being some of the first to be impacted directly by news coming out of Washington, D.C., Jennifer Tirey, executive director of the Illinois Pork Producers Association, is ready to arm producers and allied industry with timely information.

“I don’t think they will have all the answers, but I think it will be a really good time to hear from them on national updates,” said Tirey, of the speaker lineup slated for the 2025 Illinois Pork Expo, scheduled for Feb. 11 at the Bank of Springfield Center in Springfield.

Registration opens at 8 a.m. on the day, and the IPPA annual meeting, which is open to all attending, starts at 9 a.m. Registration is required to attend and will be available at the event.

The annual meeting will feature speakers Matt Grill, senior director for congressional relations at the National Pork Producers Council, and Neil Hull, director of domestic market development at the National Pork Board.

“We are looking forward to hearing Matt tell us how things are looking and some of his insight, some of the things he expects for this Congress to entertain. He will be talking policy,” Tirey said.

Top of the priority list will likely be an update on the tariff and trade scene.

“The tariff discussion is a teeter-totter right now, but maybe, by then, we’ll have a little more clarity on how that is going to impact us,” Tirey said.

Hull will be talking about the work that NPB is doing on the domestic front to increase domestic pork consumption and sales.

Tirey said she also hopes that Hull will be able to talk about NPB’s new marketing campaign and strategy.

“National Pork Board is going to launch a brand new marketing campaign in March. I am really hoping Neil is going to give us some tidbits about that and some insight into it,” she said.

One new addition to the expo will be four Checkoff Chats.

“The trade show runs from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., and during the trade show, we are going to have Checkoff Chats at the top of the hour, at 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.,” Tirey said.

Each chat will last about 20 minutes.

Leading off the Checkoff Chats will be the Beagle Brigade, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

On Jan. 6, former President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan Beagle Brigade Act into law. The legislation, introduced by and supported by a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers, provides authority and reliable funding to the National Detector Dog Training Center.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection trains beagles and other canines, which work at U.S. ports of entry, including airports, to detect contraband fruits, vegetables and meat products that could carry foreign animal and plant diseases into the United States.

“They will be bringing a beagle and doing a demonstration,” Tirey said.

Clayton Johnson, veterinarian and director of health at Carthage Veterinary Service, will be talking about current topics and issues in swine health concerns and what veterinarians are seeing on farms.

Pam Molitoris, executive director of the Central Illinois Foodbank, will be giving an update on the partnership that CIFB has with the IPPA.

A representative from the Illinois Department of Agriculture will be giving an update about some new policies related to RFID tags and requirements for upcoming livestock shows at county fairs and the state fair, as well as the status of premise ID and other programs impacting Illinois pork producers.

One deletion from the 2025 Illinois Pork Expo schedule will be the evening legislative reception for Illinois lawmakers and their staff.

“We will be having our production auction, but we are not having a legislative reception this year because the Illinois Legislature is not in session that week. It’s the day before Lincoln’s birthday and many of our legislators have Lincoln Day dinners and events. We have scheduled our legislative reception for March 18,” Tirey said.

At 5 p.m., the IPPA Family of the Year and Swine Spotlight award recipients will be announced and recognized.

The trade show opens at noon and features around 80 exhibitors showing the latest in swine industry products, technology and services.

That’s lower than in past years, but Tirey said she is happy with the variety of products that attendees will get to see.

“Even though the numbers are a little bit lower from where we’ve been, at 100 over the past couple of years, I feel like we’ve got a really good representation of the industry coming to expo,” she said.

At a Glance

Illinois Pork Expo

Feb. 11

Bank of Springfield Center

1 Convention Center Plaza

Springfield, Ill.

https://ilpork.com/expo/2025-illinois-pork-expo