DES MOINES, IOWA – Gene Nemechek, a swine veterinarian from Springdale, Ark., has been elected president of the National Pork Board (N.P.B.) by his fellow board members. Everett Forkner, a pork producer from Richards, Mo., was elected vice president. Both will serve one-year terms effective July 1.

Nemechek is a swine quality-assurance veterinarian with the live swine division of the Tyson Pork Group Inc. for Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. He has a shared responsibility to work with the Tyson pork production units in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, as well as customer quality assurance for the Tyson Pork Group weaned pig and feeder pig customers.


Currently the board vice president, Nemechek is serving his second three-year term on the N.P.B. and serves on the organization's budget committee, resolutions committee, pork safety committee and swine health committee. He previously served as president and vice president of the North Carolina Pork Council.

Forkner was nominated for a second three-year term on the board by Pork Act delegates at Pork Industry Forum in March and is awaiting the secretary of agriculture's appointment of the 2010 National Pork Board members. He is the owner and president of Forkner Farms Inc., which has 500 purebred sows and markets 8,000 hogs per year. He has sold hogs in 27 different countries. He also raises corn, soybeans and wheat on 2,000 acres.