PEORIA, Ill. — Expressing verbal commitment to one’s career or way of life can be easily accomplished, but those who demonstrate it through consistency and endurance is another matter entirely.

That’s one reason awarding the 2012 Illinois Pork Producer Family of the Year award to the Scholl family of rural Polo (Lee-Ogle counties) was a relatively easy decision, according to officials from the Illinois Pork Producers Assoc. (IPPA).

“The Scholl family epitomizes the Illinois Pork Producers’ tagline: ‘Generations of Commitment,’ for their commitment to their community, the environment, their farm and their family,” said Jim Kaitschuk, IPPA executive director, introducing the fifth-generation farm family during the 2012 Illinois Pork Expo banquet in Peoria.

“The Scholl family has a deeply-rooted farming heritage. Irv Scholl started farming in 1955 and married LaVerne in 1958. They farmed 50/50 with Irv’s parents on 160 acres. Today, the Scholls have a truly diversified grain and livestock farm. All family members pitch in where needed and help on the farm.”

The Scholl family was represented at the Jan. 31 banquet at the Sheraton Four Points downtown by Brent Scholl and his wife, Kathy, their daughter, Samantha, Brent’s brother and sister-in-law, Bruce and Julie, their son, Matt, and Irvin and LaVerne Scholl. Brent said the family felt honored to be recognized by their peers and fellow producers in the IPPA.

“The right word is ‘honored.’ We feel privileged and blessed,” he said shortly before the IPPA awards ceremony, during which recognition was given to the Scholls and other VIPPs, or “Very Important Pork Promoters,” from across the state.

“My family and I have put a lot of time into the (IPPA) and to get the award is really nice. It wasn’t something we were working on. We try to do our part for our community and the pork industry.”

Giving back to their northwestern Illinois community has always been a trademark of the Scholl family, Kaitschuk told the banquet crowd. He described a catalog of volunteer and community-based work the family has provided over the years, including coaching local athletics, involvement in fraternal and civic organizations, working with the hearing-impaired, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity and leadership in church committees, councils and administration.

Last year the Scholls were one of five Illinois Farm Families to be featured in television and radio advertisements encouraging viewers to learn more about farming and to sign up for a chance to win free groceries for a year.

Brent has served in several leadership roles with the IPPA, National Pork Producers Council and National Pork Board. The family have been stalwarts of the Lee County Pork Producers Assoc. for more than 35 years, with Brent and Bruce having each served on the organization’s board of directors and as president. Brent has served eight years on the IPPA board, where he remains as District 2 representative.

Though considered a small operation by today’s standards, the Scholl Family Farm has survived and flourished with a combination of good business savvy and their ability to adapt their operation to oft-changing markets. Currently the family raises 1,100 acres of row crops with livestock. Production includes corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle and sheep. They market 300 head of cattle and 6,500 head of hogs are marketed each year.

Family members pitch in and help with farm tasks, from nursing calves to bookkeeping or wherever needed. That homespun commitment, coupled with diversity in the operation, has been key to the family farm’s success through the generations, Brent said. He added that one factor has remained constant since before his father, Irv, started the modern-day farm by partnering with Brent’s grandfather, Clark Scholl.

“It’s still a total family farm, with livestock as our main source of income. We have crops as well, but we don’t farm that many acres,” said Brent. “What keeps us going is livestock. We run a few sheep and quite a few cattle, but our main emphasis is still hogs.”

The farm’s driving force, hogs, remains as unchanged as the family’s ongoing commitment to the farm itself, Kaitschuk pointed out.

“Brent and Bruce are fifth-generation farmers, and it is their hope that a sixth generation follows in their footsteps. Matt is an ag business major at Illinois State University who plans to return to the farm after graduation,” Kaitschuk announced.

Other VIPPs recognized during the 2012 Illinois Pork Expo banquet included Dr. Robert Easter, former dean of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (IPPA Distinguished Service Award), and Bill Fisher, IPPA Pork Promoter of the Year.

In addition, retiring IPPA board members and office personnel were acknowledged and the 2011 IPPA state pork ambassador, Kayla Meyer of Sherman, was recognized with last year’s county pork ambassadors.