Whitney Kerr, spokesman for Citizens to Protect State Parks and Historic Sites organization (CPSPHS), talks with Brent Sandidge of Ham Hill Farms Monday, March 12, during a Farm Bureau-sponsored farm tour. More pictures on pages 6 and 7.
The tour bus stopped about a half-mile from three barns filled with 2,400 pigs and let the passengers off to sniff.
There wasn't much to smell until the tour moved right next to the barns.
The Farm Bureau-sponsored Good Neighbor hog farm tour Monday, March 12, was intended to provide information about current methods and technologies used in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
From left, Saline County Presiding Commissioner Becky Plattner and Friends of Arrow Rock Executive Director Kathy Borgman talk while visiting Ham Hill Farms during the Farm Bureau Good Neighbor Tour Monday, March 12.
Two Saline County hog producers, Brent Sandidge of Ham Hill Farms and David Bentley of Bentley Farms, hosted a group of 35 people on the tour.
Odor problems have plagued residents near some CAFOs, and while no hog operation is without odor, the farmers on the tour wanted to show that modern deep-pit facilities are much less of a problem in that regard than the older lagoon storage systems.
On the tour were all three members of the Saline County Commission, state Sen. Bill Stouffer (R-Napton), state Rep. Joe Aull (D-Marshall), representatives from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the University of Missouri Extension, Farm Bureau, the Saline County Fair Board, the Marshall Chamber of Commerce, the Friends of Arrow Rock and Citizens to Protect State Parks and Historic Sites organization (CPSPHS).
Participants in the Farm Bureau Good Neighbor Tour Monday, March 12, walk back to the bus after a stop at Ham Hill Farms' newest CAFO site south of Marshall. About 35 state, county and local officials went on the tour of two operations.
The tour provided an opportunity for the farmers to explain details of their operations, both of which are considered concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), though both are too small to require permits from DNR. Both farmers fielded numerous questions from the group.
Bentley said he thought the tour went very well.
"Anytime we can educate more people the better," he said. "Now we have generations of people that have chosen not to raise their own food. It is important that people that are still raising the food ... educate them how it is being raised these days."
David Bentley explains to a group of about 35 people how his manure spreader works during the Farm Bureau-sponsored Good Neighbor Tour Monday, March 12. Hog farmers prefer to knife the manure into the soil on cropland because the method not only reduces odor but improves the effectiveness of the fertilizer.
Sandidge agreed. "There are some really bright people here asking some really good questions," he said. "Hopefully it helps the community understand what we do."
Whitney Kerr, spokesman for CPSPHS, an organization created to challenge the development of CAFOs near Arrow Rock and other state parks and historic sites, said the operations on the tour were impressive.
"These look like very good operations," he said.
Charles Fulhage of the University of Missouri Extension talks about composting as a method of disposal for dead pigs from a CAFO site. In the background, farmer David Bentley stands in front of a loader filled with the composted remains of a 250-pound hog. Dead animals can also be incinerated, buried or rendered.
Kerr and other members of the group questioned Sandidge and Bentley extensively about resource usage and the environmental impact of their operations.
Bentley noted that he has his farm's environmental impact policy posted at the entrance to the hog barn area and that he and other CAFO operators take their responsibilities very seriously.
"We all have an environmental policy and we think about it each and every day," he said. "No water from the (manure) pits is allowed to leave the farm."
From left, David Finke, treasurer of Citizens to Protect State Parks and Historic Sites organization (CPSPHS), shakes hands with hog farmer David Bentley after the farm tour and post-tour discussion concluded.
Sandidge said when DNR inspects his operation they test water before it enters the operation and after it leaves. He said he's proud of the fact that it is cleaner when it leaves than when it arrives.
David Finke, treasurer of CPSPHS, said he appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the farm operations and to meet with the farmers.
"I'm glad for the person-to-person communication," he said. "Even if we come out with some differences (of opinion) we've humanized the process."
A sign at the entrance to three hog barns at one of the Ham Hill Farms sites warns visitors that the site is a "biosecure protection area." Brent Sandidge explained how seriously farmers take security, noting that a virus introduced into a CAFO can spread quickly.
Representatives from Arrow Rock organizations, though impressed with the two farms on the tour, said they remain concerned about a proposed CAFO that will be located, if permits are approved, about two miles from the village.
"I was disappointed that health issues regarding airborne pathogens were given short shrift at the end," Finke said. "There are reasons to be concerned about CAFOs."
Kerr noted that the land usage densities were different on the tour farms than they will be on Dennis Gessling's proposed CAFO near Arrow Rock. Each has fewer animals on more land than Gessling plans to have, he said.
Water capacity is also an issue of concern to the Arrow Rock area residents and they asked Sandidge and Bentley about their sources. Both farms use well water with city water as backup, they said.
Contact Eric Crump at
marshallfaith@socket.net
Facebook
Twitter
RSS![[Masthead]](http://www.marshallnews.com/images/nameplate.png)
RSS
Print
Email link
Respond to editor
Post comment
