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The U.S. pork industry has cited four outstanding pork production operations
for their dedication to an environmental conservation ethic.
The annual awards program is co-sponsored by National Hog Farmer
magazine and the National Pork Board, as implemented by the National Pork
Producers Council.
This year’s winners Environmental Stewards for 2000 were recognized at a
special awards ceremony held in Washington, D.C., Sept. 25 and 26.
A national committee chose each operation from a designated region, according
to a news release from NPPC. The operations were evaluated in seven areas:
general production, manure management, financial management, farm aesthetics
and neighbor relations, wildlife habitat and new innovative ideas.
“These pork production operations demonstrate the high level of care and
commitment pork producers have for the environment," said David Roper, a
producer from Kimberly, Idaho, and chairman of the Environmental Stewards
sub-committee. “The program is just one portion of the pork industry's
commitment to environmental issues," added Roper, a previous
Environmental Stewards program award recipient.
The 2000 winners are:
Sugar Grove Farm, Bowling Green, Ky.
Sugar Grove Farm is a 1,600-sow farrow-to-finish unit that produces breeding
stock replacements for Cargill Pork. Sugar Grove Farm markets 32,000 hogs
annually under the management of Roger Capshaw. The farm utilizes an
automatic flushing system with a 1,100-gallon reservoir located in each
building. Wastewater is run through pipes, which have manholes with sensors
spaced throughout to detect plugged lines. As a part of the waste handling
system, four cell 12-acre wetlands were constructed. These wetlands have been
found to operate at great efficiency, and serve as an ideal habitat for wildlife
and aquatic life. Use of the effluent has saved the crop manager more than
$4,000 on commercial nitrogen fertilizer for 80 acres of cropland.
Scott Schwartz, Garvin, Minn.
On the farm since 1966, Scott Schwartz is the owner-operator of a 370-sow
breeding-gestation-farrowing facility, producing 8,000 pigs annually, which
are sold to four individual finishers. The operation's manure management
system consists of shallow flush pits under each farrowing room and the
boar/breeding room that are pulled and recharged with water after each
farrowing. The operation handles 250,000 gallons of effluent in the fall and
75,000 gallons in the spring, which is applied to the cropland in a short
time to prevent the odor of application from lingering for an excessive
period.
Bornhorst Bros., Ft. Loramie, Ohio
The Bornhorst family has raised pork at their home farm west of Ft. Loramie,
Ohio, since 1881. Bornhorst Bros., a partnership between brothers Tony and
Ted Bornhorst, is a farrow-to-finish operation producing 4,000 market hogs
annually and is operated entirely by family. The three-site, nine building
operation, has grown to incorporate 745 acres of cropland, which provides
enough corn to satisfy the operations needs in most years. The manure
management of the three locations is a combination of scraping of outside
floors, a shallow pit, a deep pit and dry pack straw. The operation includes
120 acres of small grains on which manure is applied. The straw baled from
the wheat acreage is used as bedding. It is then returned to the fields with
extra value, as the increased organic residue contributes to improved
fertility and soil tilth.
Trahern Farm, Beaver, Okla.
Trahern Farm, a breeding-gestation-farrowing (BGF) and nursery facility owned
by Land O' Lakes has been in operation since 1997. Located on 960 acres of
cropland and grassland in the Panhandle of Oklahoma, the farm consists of two
BGF units and two nursery units. It produces 104,000 feeder pigs per year.
Each of the Trahern units utilizes a single-cell anaerobic lagoon for storage
and treatment of effluent prior to land application, all certified by a
professional engineer. The BGF and nursery lagoons were pre-charged with
fresh water prior to the addition of effluent to reduce the possibility of
odor. In 1999, 17.3 million gallons of effluent from the lagoons were applied
to 554 acres of wheat, oats, rye, milo and alfalfa, providing 36,177 pounds
of plant available nitrogen-a commercial value of $4,300. Use of swine
effluent as a source of water and nutrients has resulted in reduced
production costs and has increased crop production.
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