A Proud Family Tradition

During Summer of 1937, Russell Myatt and his brother Harry along with Paul Calihan founded Calihan & Company, a small meat packing plant adjacent to the Peoria Stockyards.  For many years, Calihan slaughtered 35 to 40 cattle and a few hogs per day.  Calihan delivered to local meat and food markets within 30 miles of Peoria.  In 1953, after graduating from Bradley University and serving in Korea for the U.S. Army, Lou Landon (son-in-law of Russell Myatt) started at Calihan.  Lou is the keystone of Calihan guiding through a catastrophic tornado (September 14, 1965), river flooding, high interest rates and wholesale industry changes. At its peak, Calihan slaughtered over 1,000 cattle a week delivering throughout Illinois and Indiana.

In 1987, Calihan inaugurated a pre-rigor pork process.  The program started slowly with only three sows processed the first day.  Today, Calihan has a plant capacity of over 400 sows per day and supplies some the leading U.S. fresh sausage makers.

Lou and Tom Landon are second and third generation owners of Calihan Pork Processors, Inc.  They are joined by their General Manager, Jim Forbes, a veteran meat packer with over 30 years of experience.  The ownership and management of Calihan Pork Processors, Inc. has well over 100 years of combined meat packing experience – a proud tradition that serves its customers daily.

The primary mission of Calihan Pork Processors, Inc. is to create value for our customers.  With this in mind, our only business is producing raw materials to companies that utilize our pork for finished, value-added, products.  Calihan does not make a finished product and as such does not compete, either directly or indirectly, with its customers – it is the only way we do business – our customers are our partners; not our competition!

Peoria Livestock Market 1870-1993	Peoria Livestock Market May 29th, 1941	Calihan Pork Processing Plant

Russell Myat Circa 1940

Lou Landon 2004

Lou & Tom Landon

and Jim Forbes