Amid never-before-seen losses, Coharie Hog Farms filed bankruptcy Friday.

A Chapter 11 voluntary petition was filed by Coharie Hog Farm Inc. in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of North Carolina in Wilson. It was filed by Coharie representative Terri L. Gardner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP of Raleigh.

According to Chapter 11 stipulations, the move allows Coharie to retain control of its operations while it plans how to reorganize its debts. Creditors are prevented from pursuing a company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the most common type of bankruptcy.

“Coharie Hog Farms did, in fact, file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which calls for an orderly liquidation of all the animals and the assets of the company,” said Curtis Barwick, acting land and environmental manager for Coharie Farms. “Right now, that’s the business plan that’s been given to the Bankruptcy Court. It is a regrettable situation and one that has weighed heavy on our hearts.”

Barwick mentioned Coharie partners Anne Faircloth and Nelson Waters, as well as former Sen. Lauch Faircloth, who was the face of Coharie for so many years.

“It’s certainly a sad day for our company, our employees and our farmers,” said Barwick.

That sentiment was echoed even more emphatically by Anne Faircloth Friday afternoon.

“This has been the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make,” she said. “We appreciate all the support we have gotten from the community. We could not ask for better employees and growers, and we wish there was some way we could have avoided taking this step.”

Court documents listed creditors holding the 20 largest unsecured claims, a roster that includes creditors mostly from North Carolina (14) and Georgia (3), and one creditor each from Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. The top 20 unsecured claims total roughly $3.1 million.

The 20 largest unsecured claims range in amount from Mount Olive farmer Ray Sutton’s $93,454.66 claim to claims from large Midwestern companies Bunge North America (East) of St. Louis, Mo., and Newsham Choice Genetics of West Des Moines, Iowa, which have respective claims totaling $348,792.23 and $307,344,68.

Locally, the Sampson County Tax Collector’s Office has a claim exceeding $180,000. Daniel Hall of Clinton also holds a claim of more than $125,000.

During Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, the debtor and creditors must organize an agreement for repaying some of the debt. It is in stark contrast to Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which a business closes its door while liquidating its assets.

Coharie Hog Farms is a 30,000-sow operation and one of the major players in a statewide pork industry that ranks second-largest in the country. Started by former Sen. Lauch Faircloth as a feed mill operation in 1972, the company was ranked as the 22nd largest pork producer in the country, according to an annual analysis conducted by Successful Farming magazine.

Just four days before the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Faircloth painted a bleak picture for Coharie, which was struggling like so many other hog producers nationwide.

A surge in input costs, a global recession and H1N1 scares have each factored into a problem that now sees U.S. pork producers losing an average of $25 on each hog marketed over the past two years.

Since September 2007, the pork industry has lost more than $5.3 billion, or more than 66 percent, of its equity as of Oct. 14, 2009. Corn and soybean futures suggest losses will exceed $30 a head for pigs sold for the remainder of this year and will be nearly $40 a head in November.

“We’ve suffered unprecedented losses,” said Faircloth during an interview Monday. “We’re having a cash flow problem and have been unable to pay them for their corn because of these unprecedented losses. We are working just as hard as we can to come up with a plan to resolve this. It’s frankly very painful to see that these relationships are strained right now.”

Her comments came in the wake of public complaints by a handful of farmers in Bladen County just days before. As many as 30 farmers in southeastern North Carolina said they had not been paid for corn delivered to Coharie-run facilities.

Of those voicing complaints, Bladen County farmer Stewart Young said he and his father are owed an estimated $200,000 for corn they took to a Coharie-run facility in the Bladenboro area.

They were listed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents with other creditors. Bladenboro farmer Oran Young’s claim totals $172,400.65. Another Bladenboro farmer, Derrick Russ, also holds a claim — his totaling $117,344.51.

According to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), whose members spoke to the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture about the current pork industry crisis just weeks ago, an extended period of deep losses has drained the equity of all hog producers. Hog houses and barns are being left empty, leaving pork producers, farmers and those throughout the community reeling.

Hog production goes far beyond the fields and the houses where the product is yielded. NPPC officials said hog production represented 22 percent of North Carolina cash receipts from agriculture in 2007.

Each dollar of lost income in the hog production is results in 80 cents lost elsewhere in the economy, while each lost job represents nearly two and a half jobs lost elsewhere, industry officials said.