Nebraska State Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala, says that policy is getting in the way of rural growth.

“(Nebraska has) been in population decline for the last 50 years,” Schilz said. “So we’d better start doing some things to entice people to come back.”

Schilz introduced a bill which would lift the packer ban on livestock ownership, but only for hogs, not cattle. It’s a slightly different version from a bill he introduced last year. And it’s part of a package of proposals aimed at growing Nebraska’s livestock industry. Another bill would standardize the county zoning process, while also creating a state board that could review rejected siting permits for livestock facilities. A third bill would create economic incentives for counties to attract livestock operations.

The idea behind allowing farmers to contract with pork processors is to provide another source of income for farm families who may not have enough land to bring a son or daughter back in the business.

Schilz says with packer contracts, more young farmers could get loans to build hog barns. Critics say that would mean giving up control over the most valuable part of the farm, the livestock.

Traci Bruckner of the Center for Rural Affairs says Nebraska’s ban on packer ownership prevents meat companies from dominating the pork industry the way they do the chicken industry. She says consumers might not notice, but you can see the results in farm country.

“We think farmers should own livestock in the state, not packers,” Bruckner said. “If vertical integration was the answer rural America would be a paradise, and it’s not.”

Instead of more hog buildings on fewer farms, Bruckner and others want to see more farms adding smaller numbers of pigs. Bruckner says promoting packer-owned livestock would make that harder for farmers like Ryan Schieffer.

Schieffer sells a few hundred hogs each year from his farm near Crofton in northeast Nebraska. His operation is a throwback, considering where the hog industry is today. The animals wander in and out of open sheds that have been around for decades. He feeds them by filling and carrying buckets by hand.

“I see that old barn with rusted tin on top but it still shelters those girls just fine,” Schieffer said as he carried two buckets into a hog pen.

Until recently, Schieffer was still trying to sell his animals to big packers for commodity prices. But that traditional cash market barely exists today.

“It’s gotten to the point where that’s not working anymore,” Schieffer said. “It worked in my dad’s generation, but no, it doesn’t fly now.”

That’s why last year Schieffer and his wife Jessica started raising red wattle hogs, a heritage breed. Now, they sell meat directly to individuals and restaurants as High Land Hills Farm. He says it’s working, but it’s a different business.

“You can do a lot with a little if you want to raise them this way, but, it’s not just ‘Take these to Tyson, or Smithfield,’” Schieffer said. “You have to find your own markets. That’s where it gets tricky.”

As the pork industry becomes more concentrated, small and mid-sized producers are forced to either get bigger, get out, or get into a niche market.

Taking away Nebraska’s packer ban would give farmers another way to grab a share of the pork industry. But the concern is whether that could actually leave hog farmers with fewer ways to compete in the long run.

This article originally appeared on the Harvest Public Media website.