Area hog farms make improvements in safety, odor control

Jasper and Poweshiek counties produce hogs each year just as many sections of Iowa do. Some farmers have made significant progress in terms of safety and odor management.

According to the Iowa Pork Producers Association, there were more than 6,000 hog operations in Iowa at the end of 2012, and 94 percent of those were family owned. That gives farmers and ranchers more flexibility to make adjustments and build and modify enclosures at the local level, without relying on guidelines from out-of-state cooperate headquarters. Iowa producers marketed more than 49 million hogs in 2012.

Lauren Van Wyk has about 4,000 hogs on a property on S. 52nd Ave. E., south of Kellogg and north of Sully, He planted rows of hybrid trees called Austree Willows on the east and west sides of a pair of hog buildings in 2007, and those trees quickly shot up to help provide windbreaks.

“We couldn’t really have them on the north or south sides, because there is is some need for air to get in there for the hogs,” Van Wyk said. “But it really helps with the odor, with the neighbors being not too far off.”

Van Wyk’s Aussie Willows are from Kelly Trees, located east of Cedar Rapids. He said the trees shot up quickly, and were as tall as him by the end of the first year.

While the Aussie Willow isn’t an evergreen tree, it sheds its leaves fairly late in the fall, especially compared to, say, poplars or ash trees. Its flexible, rubbery branches tend to endure ice and snow well in the winter, as broken limbs are a rarity. Farmers are looking for more and more ways to protect hog enclosures.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there were 20.9 million hogs and pigs on Iowa farms on Dec. 1, 2014, tied with September 2013 for the highest inventory on record. Nearly one-third of the nation’s hogs are raised in Iowa. Van Wyk is hardly the only hog innovator in the area. Ron Iverson of Grinnell has been producing pigs for more than 30 years on a farm that also includes 400 acres of corn, 400 acres of soybeans and 40 beef cows.

Iverson was recently honored as the winner of the 2014 Master Seedstock Award by the Iowa Purebred Swine Council. Sponsored by the Iowa Purebred Swine Council, the Master Seedstock Producer Award is designed to recognize significant contributions to the Iowa and national purebred industries. His seedstock business started with two Duroc gilts. He produced crossbred animals for a while, then switched to purebred Hampshire production in 1990.

Iverson now sells Hampshire show pigs and makes a conscious effort to keep commercial swine production traits as a major emphasis in his breeding program. Iverson has been a very active purebred Hampshire breeder, especially on the state and national level, by serving on various boards.

A total of 40,290 Iowans are employed in day-to-day production of hogs, according to the IPPA. Of the Iowa hog farms, 39 percent (2,451 farms) have 1,000 pigs or less. The Dec. 1 inventory was up 1 percent from September 2014 and up 3 percent from December 2013’s tally of 20.2 million head.