Hog Farms

There has been quite a controversy here in Vernon County over a proposed 2400 head hog confinement operation. The people opposed to it are claiming it will cause air and groundwater pollution along with decreased property values from the odor. The farmer justs wants to try to make a living.

Does anyone on here have any experience, whether it is first hand or anecdotal about this type of farming operation? Is this the beginning of the end as some are saying it is? Will this type of operation cause pollution and decreased property values? I don’t want to condemn someone for trying to make a living, I just want to know if there are any environmental impacts.

Anyone from Iowa or Minnesota have any experiences with this sort of thing? This has been a very devisive issue here for a while.

It has been proposed several times in Dakota county.

It is always over-ruled because it becomes a commercial operation and not an agricultural.

The zoning of where these operations always come into play is agricultural. Technically, you cannot place a commercial business in an agricultural zone, unless you get a variance, via vote.

If the township/county get involved correctly and demand proper setups, there doesn’t have to be water/ground/air pollution.

Hate to say it… but it might be hard for a while… but you will get used to the smell….

Sorry, I don’t have much experience with hog farming. I have horses and a feild full of manure. I don’t even notice it… but my family does when they come to visit.

Farmers are responsible for the manure they produce, and it cannot penetrate to ground water sources or they will be fined. Some of this does come back to enforcement however, and I have seen county enforcement be poor.

I will side with the farmer on this one. He wants to make a living. People want to live in the country, but don’t want any of the bad parts about living there. ie smell, dust on gravel roads, etc. If you don’t want all that comes with country life, move to the city. Seems like a huge “not in my back yard” deal.

My folks farmed cows for many years (now retired) but have a 1000 head hog operation a half mile up the road. Very rarely do they smell anything, but it is very dependant on prevailing winds. I don’t think I would want a place on the east side of the operation.

I don’t know all of the pollution issues, but I know that they stink. I live only a mile north of the Vernon/LaCrosse county line, so I hope the smell stays south! The only pig smells I enjoy are pork chops and bacon.

Curt

The smell will be mostly area away from the prevailing winds. Here in NE Iowa that would be within about 1/2 mi. to the SE of the unit in the winter or NE of the unit in the summer. All other issues will be controlled by regulations and spec’s. Very well regulated in Iowa on most new units. Like not within a certain distance of an existing residence. Don’t build a new house just East of the unit, you will be sorry.

Im not versed as well as farmers on what the regs. are but here in iowa if its self contained about all you see is a building and you’d never know hogs were there. The only time they see the sun is when they are brought to the confinement to be raised and when they go to market. The systems here have concrete pools to hold the hog waist and the few i’ve been around don’t smell much, you wouldn’t know they were there. What does smell is when they inject the waist into the ground in early spring befor planting useing that for fertilizer. The self contained hog confinment systems here don’t smell nearly as much as the hogs that are being raised in the open lots. You have to get used to that but thats the country where farm animals live.

Even though I have the mad symbol up I only want to tell you an experience about trout fishing. Years ago, I am guessing in the late 70’s I scouted out a trout stream called the Ruprecht. I found some brook trout in the upper end of the stream. I decided to leave them alone for a few years as I kept trout in those days. A few years later I went back to fish the stream. Wow! Plant life was gone, trout were not there as there was hardly any water in the upper end. Also the lower end of the stream had dramatically changed for the worse. I wondered what happended. Then when I drove around on the upper end of the watershed I saw pig farming with corn grown right up to the road edges. I am guessing that some “buffer” type of grass would have helped with the obvious filling in of the upper end of the stream. This is just what I saw and am telling it as it was.

Around my hometown, one person wanted to build a 2400 head hog building and someone nearly a mile away complained because of the smell. Well it was argued for a long time but in the end, there is a 2400 head hog building up and running. I drive by the building quite often and even deliver feed to it once in a while. When I’m going by on the highway, I have never once smelled anything from it. When I deliver feed and am standing 30 feet from the side of the building, I can smell it, but its not overpowering by any stretch of the imagination.

The biggest issue is whether the person running the operation knows what they are doing in order to control the odor and any possible runoff issue. If they know what they are doing and how to do it properly, there’s no problem with it.

Personally, I would not buy a pork product that was raised in a situation like that if I could help it and I can. That big food poisoning outbreak with spinach a year ago was caused by a huge farm like that in California whose waste was ending up in spinach fields. I am not a farmer but I do think there can be well run operations too.

I used to live across the road from a huge operation. When the wind was out of the NE, it was unbearable. Better keep the windows closed and stay indoors. The bigger issue I had, was my dog, who always wandered around my place in the country, started bringing home little piglets, that had died and the farmer threw them out back. Needless to say, I was forever throwing little piggies in my garbage. Other than that, I just had a BLT for lunch and love them !!! In other words, anywhere but across the road from me… (I have since moved and the operation is empty too)

big g

At one time my hometown used to have the largest stockyards operation in the world. 6000 cattle, 10,000 hogs per day was no big deal. If the wind came from the right direction you knew they were there too. Before teh advent of “organic farming” there used to be this mountain of manure that was full of worms. The best worm digging in the world!

When asked by a stranger “what’s that smell!!??!! ” we’d always answer “that’s the smell of money”.

Rootski

as long as you don’t let them grind you down, right Rootski??

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It has been proposed several times in Dakota county.

It is always over-ruled because it becomes a commercial operation and not an agricultural.

The zoning of where these operations always come into play is agricultural. Technically, you cannot place a commercial business in an agricultural zone, unless you get a variance, via vote.

If the township/county get involved correctly and demand proper setups, there doesn’t have to be water/ground/air pollution.

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Unfortunately, Vernon County has no Zoning to control this or any other land use issue.

I agree that a farmer has the right to make a living. But if his right to farm impacts my right to “quiet enjoyment” of my property, thats when there becomes a problem.

I’m more worried about water quality than anything else. 3 years ago we lost a small, local lake to an “alleged” misapplication of manure. I saw numerous 20″ bass and tons of slab bluegills onshore as they drained that lake. The DNR wouldn’t blame it on the farmer, but many people, including myself, saw and smelled manure in the water when we drilled holes in the ice. When the DNR came, they found 0 ppm of oxygen in the lake. The manure took all the oxygen when it started to decompose, thus killing the fish. The offical view wasn’t manure runoff, they blamed it on the lowering of the lake level that Fall to kill off weed growth along the shore. I’m sure that didn’t help, but tons of manure in the water REALLY didn’t help, either.

I’m just afraid of losing fishing opportunites and VERY afraid of contaminated ground water. I’m used to country smells. I know that the smell of manure is the smell of money in our area.

Well, my background is very heavy on hog farming
I could right a book on the various farms I have worked on from downright dirty to the last one which was #2 in the country for size and production.
I started out in high school working for a feeder to finish operation. This farm was small with only 2000 head at a time. This farm had a small confined barn for the new arrivals and then an outside lot for the bigger pigs to be fattened up until slaughter. It was dirty and stinky all the time.

the last farm I was a manager of an 8000 head nursery barn. The company itself had 280,000 sows spread out in 4 states and was also what is called vertically integrated. By that I mean, the company owned every aspect of the operation from sows, slaughter plant, feed mills, and the ships that took the meat over to China. This farm was unbeleivable when it came to production. I lived on the site of the farm and had a manure pit less than 50 yards from my back door as well as the barn. They had air monitoring stations all over the counties to measure smell in parts per million. We also measured the amount of nitrates in the manure in the pits. I could not even smell the manure in my back yard. When I went into the barn and worked all day and took a shower before walking home, I NEVER brought the smell home.
The big key in keeping hog manure smell down is a simple amino acid, lysine. Hogs need a large amount of lysine in their diet to grow properly. The corn in the feed is where they get the lysine. The problem with the average feed mill is they do not have the equipment to add these amino acids in the right amounts. To compinsate for the amount of lysine needed, they add more corn. But, the hogs cannot digest all of the corn and it goes out the other end not fully digested and utilized. The more undigested corn you have, the more nitrates you build up resulting in the smell. The company I worked for had state of the art feed mills that enabled them to add the lysine from bulk bins as well as several other amino acids and micro nutrients. This allows for less corn to be in the feedmix and severely reduces the smell.
We had an environmental team that kept up with all the farms and monitoring air pollution as well as water. They have never had a case where the water or air was contaminated above what was legally accepted.
Sorry for the long post, but I really enjoy running hog farms

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When asked by a stranger “what’s that smell!!??!! ” we’d always answer “that’s the smell of money”.

Rootski

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Whenever I hear somebody say that, I respond by saying: “I keep my money in my pocket. If your money smells like that, you may want to move to the side just a bit.”

If you REALLY want to smell some rancid air, head over to Kersey, CO just outside of Greeley and drive by Montfort Feed, Inc. That is a 100,000 head cattle feedlot right along side the road. The feedlot follows next to the road for miles. That will even make my stomach turn, especially right after a rain

I hear ya there Wats, west of town here they have cattle lots like that. Mounds of hardened manure with cattle standing on the tops of them, thousands of cattle a year feeding lots. I’ve been by hog lots that were farrowing 30 sows that smelled like he–, go down the road aways with the new modern hog confinment systems and you can’t smell anything with 2000 hogs inside.
Example; i did a job for a couple who leased out thier hog confinment system only 50 yrds from thier house. I worked on this job for two weeks and never smelled anything. One day I seen a guy pull up to the manure pit that was covered and contained and he pumped out the hog manure to his pumping and fertilizing setup that he pulled through the fields behind his tractor. I asked the owner ( the guy i was woking for) what he was doing because I couldn’t smell anything and he said hes pumping out the hog manure and applying it to the fields for spring planting. I had no idea that containment building had hogs in it and had no idea the pit was full of manure until they pumped it into the ground in a field across the road. This setup in the two weeks I worked there had no smell what so ever and I was totally impressed when he said thier was 2000 hogs in the building only a couple hundred feet from his own house where he and his family lived. When i asked more he said you see those bins along side the building, thats where thier special mixed feed is stored. I asked how many people work there and he said no one works there, everythings quality and computer controlled, feeding, watering, medications etc. The only visits they have for that system was from the vet who checked out the conditions to make sure things were going right. Totally impressed me forsure and it took awhile for me to absorbe what he said.
On the other hand they had a manure spill from a hog farm in N.E. Iowa that ran into a trout stream and it killed alot of trout and other life depending on the oxygen in the water. They fined the farming operation and the next year the trout stream was up and running again. From what i’ve heard and seen here in Iowa when it comes to hogs those things can be taken care of so everythings low impact, they have it down pretty darned good here.

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If you REALLY want to smell some rancid air, head over to Kersey, CO just outside of Greeley and drive by Montfort Feed, Inc. That is a 100,000 head cattle feedlot right along side the road. The feedlot follows next to the road for miles. That will even make my stomach turn, especially right after a rain

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Or spend any amount of time near wet rotten soybeans. I work at a grain elevator and deal with them a lot. Quite possibly the worst stink i’ve ever been around.

Man, have you struck a nerve with me.
First off I was raised on the farm and love farming, family farming that is. I still live in the house my great-grandfather buildt and love it here.
I can not speak about other areas but here in Shelby County Iowa, we have something major to worry about, CORPORATE FARMING. It is bad, much worse then you can ever imagine.
All the negatives are true about the acerage vales, the stink, the cost of roads and so much more to say.
I can never say it all in this short note and I sure don’t have time to write a book about this disgusting subject.
Lets just say for me I support any family farmer trying to make a living, BUT I oppose a coperate mentality to large operations of any type.
Here is my example. This is actually happening within 5 miles of me.
Local Farm boy goes to Harvard and learns how to screw the world to his favor. He then operates several coperations.
Then about 1997 he builds 3 1000 head hog houses, not living in Shelby county just having people manage them while he learns the ropes of control of people and governemt.
about 2000 he builds a 6000 head sow farrowing unit. Please be aware this unit will put off the equal sewage of a town of about 38,000 people, keep that fact in mind.
In the state of Iowa all you have to do to have a confinment permit for waste removal is meet the DNR demands of having a way to dispose of the waste on “x” amount of acres. That doesnt mean you have to use all the acres to spead the sewage you just need to have accesibilty to the acres.
While this person does not need even a high school education to manage such a plan or permit, a person running a small city of 38,000 people would need a 4 year college education to be liscensed by the state to run the waste water treatment plant. STICK THAT IN YOUR HAT!!!!!!
Then about 2001 he decides to build another 6000 head sow farrowing unit within about 1 1/2 miles of the other. Ths raises his total head so far 15,000 with in 5 miles. Many more now.
He did this by selling shares in his chain letter investment farming. MIllions of dollars coming in from all over the world to ruin my community.
Now they have a 10,000 cow milking unit 3 miles to the north, owned bye the share holders, again from all over the world. Another 10,000 cow unit is planned for across the road.
Think about the acres demands for the sewage of an operation this size, legally that is. Remember you don’t need to properly apply the sewage just meet the acre requiments acessible by the state.
Another problem is the water demands units like this take. 10,000 head of cows at 30 gallon/day. This doesn’t even include the sow unit requirements.
Now think about this, there needs to be people to milk the cows and work the farrowing houses.
Along come the illegal alliens to our areas.
Driving up the rent, not paying taxes, not paying bills at our county owned hospital, not carrying car insurance, and receiving “free money from the local security services like WIC. Now along with that I have to pay more money for paved Roads to and from the dairy to interstate 80 (about 10 miles to the south @ $1,000,000/mile?)oh yes and don’t forget about the rural water lines I need to install for the corperate farmers in the rest of the world to use at my expense.
I hate to sound so angry but you need to realize when someone says “I just want a man to make a living”, keep in mind it needs to be honestly and morally right. The proper laws with fairness in mind for one and all.
If corperate farming and large large factory operations are so much better, they should be able to survive on an equal playing field with the family farmer and not by lying and using others.
One last thing to keep in mind next time you drink milk from this cooperate milking operations, the only way they get the cows to milk are to inject them with hormones. Sounds healthy to me how about you? Natural milk production huh. And to top this off the Dairy(in Des Moines) cut off northern Iowa family farmers so they could contract the milk from this cooperation.
Next time you hear people talking about the large units just being a family farmer trying to make a living, think again.
If you would like to learn more about this subject do a search for Shelby County Iowa and hogs or milking, you will be amazed.
Drop me a line to learn more about where your food will be in the future. Don’t quote me on this, but it is said, 95% of the food is controlled by 6 major cooperations in the US.
Best wishes to all.

Wow Lonnie! Tell us how you really feel!
Great synopsis!

Sounds like I should have went to Harvard….

big g

Now that we have seen the “bad” side of Corporate farms, how about the good side?

Corporate farms bring more jobs to the area they are in than the family farms. Most of the corporate hog farms buy all their grain for the meal LOCALLY, providing the family farmer to have a market to sell their grains. They also bring in tax money to the city or town they are in, more than the family farm does. The corporate farm I worked for did all of this and more. They also maintained the roads all year for the entire counties they were in. This includes plowing roads during the winter so ALL the ranchers could get to their cattle or get to town to buy groceries or whatnot. Corporate farms are not evil empires out to destroy the agricultural industry. What they are are people who are out to provide a service to the people, and that is to provide food. Times have changed from the days of small farms providing for themselves and a few others. We are now in a time of larger more efficient and technologically advanced times in the agricultural industry. You cannot realistically place all the blame on the corporate farms. The world population has exploded and family farms cannot and will not ever be able to provide food products to the overall population. It is sad, but true.
My family operates a small beef cow/calf operation with 200 head of cows. We have seen the changes and have accepted it. We didn’t worry about the corporate farms running us out of business since we had/have contracts to sell the calves before they are even born. If the family farm wants to compete in today’s market, they need to make some serious changes to the way they do business or sit around and complain about it.

My brother runs 3 hogs confinements in NE Iowa. The smell isn’t a big deal. 99 percent of the time you can’t even smell them. We have a buddy just outside of our home town that had a bunch of city folk that moved into the country raise a stink about him putting up a confinement. Well it states in Iowa you are allowed to put one on your property so he did. That was 6 years ago they are all done complaining. I don’t mind them I have grown up around them my whole life though. If you have more questions shoot me a pm I can really do into detail if you would like.

I live about 1/2 mile north of the only CAFO swine operation in Richland County. As far as I know they have 1600 sows and from talking to the manager there they lead the company in production with a 29 piglet born alive average per sow per year. I drive by it to go to work and I very rarely smell it. This unit has been in operation since the late 1970’s. I don’t need any fancy filters on my faucet for my water to be drinkable. There is an artesian well at the bottom of the hill from this unit and I see quite a few people getting water there.

I did a search on the internet on this company and was surprised to see a lot of complaints about them and their operation outside of Wisconsin. In Illinois they started operation of a large unit without the lagoon being finished.

The only thing I can think of, is that the WI DNR has better monitoring and much higher fines for violations.

I think the biggest statement made by Mr Parr is the fact that he hasn’t moved out of the county.

I wish property values would have dropped but there was 13 acres of land with 3/4 mile of this hog farm that sold in 15 days from being listed for $65000, which is pretty high.