Des Moines, Iowa — For the first time in about nine decades, the Iowa Pork Producers Association is being run by a woman.
Trish Cook, of Buchanan County, was elected this past week at the organization’s annual meeting. Cook and her family run a farm near Winthrop that produces 32 thousand hogs a year as well as corn and soybeans. As for being the first woman in the post, Cook says the things that are important to her are important to all pork producers.
Cook was the association’s president-elect throughout 2022 and she replaces Kevin Rasmussen of Goldfield as president.
Cook has an accounting degree from Iowa State University and an M-B-A from the University of Iowa. Cook says one of her goals for 2023 is to build on the vigilance Iowa pork producers have developed in recent years to guard against biohazards.
The IPPA was originally known as the Iowa Swine Growers Association, with meetings dating back to the early 1930s.
