Curt Daniels’ story begins in St. Louis, where childhood summers spent on his Aunt Grace’s Missouri farm inspired a lifelong ambition to become a farmer. He graduated from veterinary school at the University of Missouri in 1965 and entered veterinary practice in a small Missouri town, focusing on farm-animal medicine. As he observed the changing economics and methods of hog production, he saw an opportunity to pursue the farming life he had wanted since eighth grade.

In 1968, Daniels left Missouri for Iowa and purchased an 80-acre farm. He began raising hogs with ten gilts and became an early adopter of evolving production methods. What started modestly eventually grew into an operation of approximately 800–1,000 sows. His years in hog production placed him firsthand within a livestock industry undergoing major technological and regulatory change.

Over time, Daniels’ farming career became increasingly intertwined with environmental regulation and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. After years devoted to developing and operating his farm, regulatory proceedings, the eventual closure of the hog operation, disputes over equipment and property, and subsequent litigation changed the direction of his life. The conflicts ultimately extended beyond farming and became a prolonged struggle involving property rights, court judgments, a contested sheriff’s sale, and the application of legal precedent.

Daniels later became a lawyer, giving him another perspective from which to confront the legal disputes that followed. His efforts to challenge the sheriff’s sale eventually resulted in the sale being set aside, but his struggle did not end there. He continued pursuing restoration of property and enforcement of the judgment, arguing that established principles of law required the parties to be returned, as nearly as possible, to their positions before the sale.

In Hogs & Law, Daniels brings together more than sixty years of experience as a farm-animal veterinarian, hog farmer, and lawyer. He presents the book as both his personal history and an examination of what he believes can occur when law, equity, fairness, and established precedent are not consistently followed. His story traces an extraordinary transformation—from a young man determined to build a farm to an individual spending years fighting for his legal rights.