02/06/2023
A little history:
After serving six years in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper, Hugh McClain spent the first 10 years of his business career in the poultry industry as a sales manager for a national feed company in Iowa and Missouri.
Hugh returned to Arkansas and began producing turkeys in 1970. This was the beginning of McClain Farms. In 1973, he acquired a feed mill and began expanding the operation. At its height, McClain Farms had 42 contract turkey producers in north central Arkansas and was operating a fleet of trucks to support the various facets of the business. McClain Farms purchased wood shavings for poultry bedding from a company in Alton, Missouri. McClain purchased the company in 1996. McClain built a new receiving, drying and processing yard in Alton, then in 2005 purchased a flooring manufacturing plant in Koshkonong, Missouri. In May of 2010, McClain acquired the hardwood lumber operations of the North Pacific Group. After merging the two operations, the company changed its name to McClain Forest Products, LLC.
Hugh has diversified his business interests by expanding into multi-family housing, cattle, and the banking business. During his career, Hugh has been president of the National Turkey Federation and Arkansas Poultry Federation and served on the Arkansas Poultry and Livestock Commission. He was recently inducted into the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame.
