Unionport Nursery in Randolph County houses about 19,000 piglets, 40 to a pen. The piglets are kept for six weeks before being shipped to contract farms. Last year, Randolph County added 126,866 swine, and this year, the county has already added 37,577. A vote on a proposal to create two agriciultural districts in the county — only one would allow CAFOs — will be Nov. 20. Melanie Maxwell / The Star Press
Unionport Nursery in Randolph County houses about 19,000 piglets, 40 to a pen. The piglets are kept for six weeks before being shipped to contract farms. Last year, Randolph County added 126,866 swine, and this year, the county has already added 37,577. A vote on a proposal to create two agriciultural districts in the county — only one would allow CAFOs — will be Nov. 20. Melanie Maxwell / The Star Press

By SETH SLABAUGH, Star Press 
seths@muncie.gannett.com

WINCHESTER -- Maxwell Foods, Goldsboro, N.C., is boosting East Central Indiana's status as a pork producer.

Randolph and Jay counties led the state's swine expansion last year, obtaining permits to add 126,866 and 47,800 animals, respectively. And that trend is continuing, according to records provided by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

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