OUR STORY

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 Our history can be traced back to shortly after 1900, when Richard Axel Johansson immigrated to the United States from Sweden and began farming on a small rented farm south of Sandwich, Illinois. Richard's son, LaVerne "Dutch" Johnson returned to the Sandwich farm in 1940 after graduating from Purdue University & farmed with his father until 1956, when he decided to branch out on his own and purchase the the site of our current home farm South of DeKalb, Illinois to begin operating Johnson Farms. 

Over the next 50+ years, 5 of Dutch's children returned to the farm, and the operation steadily expanded its grain and pork operations. From the very beginning, we have believed in the importance of innovating through technology and responding to changing customer demands. Johnson Farms was an early adopter of using personal computers to analyze production data, and was even profiled in Time Magazine's 1982 Person (Machine) of the Year Issue to highlight the influence that personal computers were starting to have in the Agriculture Industry.

In 2004, after a steady expansion of its pork business, Johnson-Pate Pork, Inc. was spun off from Johnson Farms.  In 2011, after extensive facility renovations and investments in new technologies, our pork operation further evolved by shifting its focus to producing high-quality pork for premium markets adhering to the highest animal welfare standards throughout the country. 

Now in our fourth-generation, we have proudly built a dedicated & hard working team that  continues to operate a fully-integrated grain and pork operation and takes pride in producing the highest-quality pork for our customers throughout the United States.