Tim Sadler

Tim Sadler has been a finishing supervisor the past two years for Reicks View Farms, based near Lawler. He oversees 20 to 30 contract growers to ensure they’re providing quality animal care, as well as monitors pig health, tracks pig movements, and markets loads. In addition, Sadler is a contract grower himself, finishing 14,000 pigs per year for the company.

Sadler started in 2018 with Reicks View’s farrowing department, after graduating with an agricultural studies degree from Iowa State University. He supervised the daily care and treatment of sows, coordinated weanings, and was in charge of employee schedules. To strengthen teamwork and efficiency among his eight employees, he planned activities like pizza and dance parties.

“Once you have a stronger relationship with the people you work with, there’s a lot more give and take,” he said. “Before I knew it, we were one big family—literally.”

Tim Sadler of Cresco, Iowa, center, is named a Master Pork Producer during Iowa Pork Congress on Jan. 26, 2022. Presenting the award are Dr. Chris Rademacher, Iowa State University, left, and Dennis Liljedahl, 2021 president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

Sadler shares Reicks View’s commitment to community involvement. The Reicks View Ag Education Center, built in 2016 at the Mighty Howard County Fairgrounds, includes a small farrowing and finishing area that houses pigs supplied by Reicks View. Since early 2020, Sadler spends three months before the fair helping 4-H and FFA youth—with no farm backgrounds—do daily chores and prepare pigs for showing in front of a judge. Sadler encourages participants’ families to also get involved and learn about biosecurity protocols, responsible antibiotic usage, and the production cycle.

In 2018, to further share the pork story, Sadler and a coworker brought FarmChat® to northeast Iowa schools. As part of the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation program, Sadler or his coworker visit a classroom with a weaned pig, while the other hosts a virtual tour of a farrowing facility. Within three years, Sadler helped grow their audience from 50 youth in kindergarten through eighth grade, to 750 students across the Midwest and Alaska.

Sadler, 26, is a member of the Chickasaw County Pork Producers Association. He serves as vice president of the Howard County Farm Bureau, and last year participated in the Iowa Farm Bureau Ag Leaders Institute. Beyond the ag world, he’s active with his church, is a mentor for Helping Services for Youth & Families, and was a volunteer firefighter for the Monroe Township Fire Department in Toddville for four years.

Sadler and his fiancee Bailey Lenz are planning to marry Oct. 8.