Pork family of the year named

(photo via Illinois Pork Producers Association)

Receiving the 2021 IPPA Family of the Year award is the Brazinski Pork Farm, located in Coulterville.

This family farm produces 34,000 market hogs per year, in addition to a row crop farming operation that includes corn, soybeans, and wheat. Their family is led by Jim Brazinski, who is president of pig production companies Grand View Farm and Grand Tower Farm, a service agency Corn Silk LLC, and owns Brazinski Pork Farm.

The family history of both Jim’s parents is rich in the farming tradition. While the maternal side in the U.S. dates back to the 1850’s, Jim’s paternal grandfather, who fled from Lithuania in 1904 due to political tensions, set up his farm in the current Coulterville location in the 1920’s. Fast-forward two generations, and life for grandfather’s family in Lithuania became difficult when the Russians invaded Lithuania in the 1940’s, seized their farm, and exiled the family to Siberia.