Each award is highlighted in the 2026 Minnesota Pork Congress magazine. Read the full magazine here.
This award is sponsored by Compeer Financial.
The Minnesota Pork Board recognizes the Terry and Sylvia Wolters Family as this year’s Family of the Year award recipient.
A passion for animal science set Terry and Sylvia Wolters on a path that would shape both their careers and their family’s purpose.
Though not the traditional farm family rooted in one place, their story reflects an increasingly important kind of legacy. It is one built on an unwavering commitment to people, community, and pork. Their dedication has led to deserving recognition as the 2026 Minnesota Pork Family of the Year.
A Shared Start
Terry and Sylvia’s story began at Washington State University (WSU), where both were animal science majors and members of the livestock judging team. Judging contests, quiz bowl, meats judging and coursework laid a technical foundation, but more importantly, they sparked a shared passion for agriculture.
Sylvia grew up in western Washington on a sheep and hay ranch, while Terry was raised in eastern Washington, where his early exposure to pigs came through an FFA project. That experience left a lasting impression, shaping Terry’s belief that agriculture must remain accessible to students who may not grow up on a farm. Decades later, both Sylvia and Terry remain using the skills they learned growing up in programs like FFA and 4-H. That belief would resurface through their involvement with career and technical education programs that connect students to livestock and food systems.
After graduating from WSU in 1985, Terry and Sylvia married and moved to Kentucky within weeks, both accepting positions with Pig Improvement Company (PIC).
“We moved to Kentucky with what we owned in the back of a pickup and school loans,” Terry said.
It was the first of several moves that would shape their professional and personal journey, driven by passion for the industry and a willingness to pursue opportunities.
Building Careers Together
PIC soon transferred the couple to Iowa and then to White Lake, South Dakota, where Terry managed production sites. While Sylvia initially worked in barns, the realities of small-farm staffing and alternating weekend schedules prompted her to step away from barn work and explore opportunities in town.
That decision led Sylvia into the retail and food-service world, a move that would prove instrumental later in life. After working as a meat cutter and gaining retail experience, Sylvia and Terry eventually purchased a grocery store in White Lake, followed by a café shortly thereafter. For more than a decade, Sylvia ran both businesses, handling everything from meat cutting and ordering to cooking, marketing and customer relationships.
“Food brings people together, and that has carried through everything we’ve done since,” Sylvia said.
Those years proved how food connects people, how quality and consistency matter, and how relationships are built around shared meals, lessons that would later become central to the Wolters’ approach to pork promotion and community engagement.
Moving to Pipestone
After 12 years in White Lake, Terry’s role with PIC evolved into a sales position, bringing him frequently to Pipestone, Minnesota. The relationships he built there, particularly with Hutterite colonies and Pipestone’s growing customer base, led to a new opportunity. Pipestone recruited Terry to join the organization, where he currently serves as Vice President of Customer and Industry Relations along with weaned pig sales, cull sow marketing, and procurement of hogs to Wholestone for Pipestone.
Beyond a career shift, the move opened doors for Terry and Sylvia to invest directly in pork production. Unlike previous roles, Pipestone’s structure allowed employees to have ownership, enabling the Wolters family to purchase shares in sow farms and eventually own a wean-to-finish barn. Today, under Stony Creek Farms, the family has ownership interests across multiple sow farms and maintains a leased wean-to-finish facility, along with some crop ground.
Just as importantly, Pipestone felt like home.
The values, work ethic, and farmer-first focus of the organization aligned closely with Terry and Sylvia’s own.
“Pipestone felt like a place that shared our values and work ethic,” Terry said. “It was closer to the farmers we worked for, and it felt like home.”
Over time, their definition of “family” expanded beyond their two children to include the broader Pipestone team, colleagues who became friends and partners in a shared mission to support family farmers.
With the move, Sylvia found her place at Pipestone, too. As the Public Relations Director, she has helped shape how the organization connects with the public, farmers and families through education and outreach. Drawing on decades of experience in food service, promotion and community engagement, she has played a key role in developing hands-on and interactive experiences including exhibits like virtual sow farm tour at several fairs, children’s museums and more including the Sioux Empire Fair’s Discovery Barn. For Sylvia, the work is a natural extension of what she has always done.
“When I was 11 years old, I did a sheep-shearing demonstration at the mall for an ag awareness weekend,” she said. “We did the shearing demonstrations right there at the mall, and now I’ve done those same demonstrations at the Discovery Barn.”
More than 50 years later, that passion remains unchanged. What began as a childhood introduction to agricultural education has become a lifelong commitment, creating meaningful, approachable experiences that help people better understand farming, food and animal care.
Promotion Through Food and Community
While production and leadership laid the foundation of the Wolters’ careers, over the years of building Pipestone as their home, their greatest fulfillment has come through promotion and community engagement.
What began as simple county pork producer grilling gradually evolved into something much larger. With Sylvia’s background in food service and retail and Terry’s passion for advocacy, the couple started preparing pork for meetings, events, and fundraisers across their community, and demand grew quickly. Their efforts have supported a range of organizations, from FFA chapters to military, first responder, and fire rescue organizations.
“It just got bigger and bigger, and it’s like a hobby that’s kind of out of control now,” Sylvia said.
They invested in professional equipment, licensed food-service trailers in both South Dakota and Minnesota and developed what is now known as Stony Creek Promotions. Today, they prepare an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of pork annually, with the majority used to support community fundraisers. Rather than writing checks, the Wolters use pork as a tool to multiply impact, turning a few hundred dollars’ worth of product into thousands in revenue for local causes.
“There are a lot of relationships and a lot of good things that happen around food,” Sylvia said. “Being part of people’s celebrations or events is fun, and being able to contribute pork makes it even better because that’s what we’re passionate about.”
Leadership, Service, and Family
Beyond cooking delicious pork, both Terry and Sylvia have dedicated countless hours to leadership and service.
Terry has served at every level of pork leadership, from county involvement to state and national boards, including the Minnesota Pork Producers Association and the National Pork Producers Council, serving as president in 2022. His roles have included work on animal health, food safety, traceability, product demand, and promotion committees.
Sylvia’s leadership has often centered on education and community. She has served on chamber boards, pork-related committees in multiple states, and education-focused boards such as the CTE Academy and Minnesota West. Her work consistently returns to one theme: helping people, especially young people, find opportunity and connection.
Terry and Sylvia’s children, Bailey and Blake, grew up immersed in these values.
Bailey, the older of the two, balanced livestock projects with a range of interests. Today, she and her husband Austin are raising their son in South Dakota, continuing the family’s connection to community, agriculture, and youth activities.
Blake developed an early passion for pigs through show projects and later earned a degree in agricultural engineering from South Dakota State University. He, his wife Paige and their daughter Hattie live in Austin, Minnesota. Blake works for Hormel in research and development, designing and improving processing systems while continuing to give back as a high school wrestling coach.
Both Blake and Paige served as Minnesota Pork Ambassadors from 2016-2017 as college students, meeting with farmers and consumers, attending events such as Minnesota Pork Congress and World Pork Expo, and overall representing the industry. Through their involvement, Jill Resler, CEO for Minnesota Pork, has witnessed the family’s commitment first-hand.
“The Wolters family is a testament to there is no single pathway that leads to a lifelong commitment to the pork industry,” Resler said. “Across roles, generations, and stages of life, they have been intentional about remaining connected to the industry they care about deeply.”
Looking Ahead
From building careers in pork production to serving pork to bring communities together, the Wolters have touched nearly every aspect of strengthening pork in Minnesota. Their recognition as the 2026 Minnesota Family of the Year reflects a decades-long commitment to leadership, service, and commitment, continuing in its next generation.
