Dennis Gessling uses this rig to pump manure from his hog waste lagoon and "knife" it onto his crop land as fertilizer. He said he adheres to Missouri laws by taking samples of the lagoon and soil samples of his ground and applies only the nutrients needed for one crop-year. As a permitted Class IC Confined Animal Feeding Operation, he has to send the records in each year to the Department of Natural Resources. Area farmers usually apply the manure once or twice each year. (Marcia Gorrell/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Dennis Gessling was just a "little shaver" in the early 1980s when photojournalists from the University of Missouri-Columbia came to do a book on Arrow Rock and the surrounding community.

His father, Ivan, was the volunteer fire captain of the Arrow Rock Fire District at the time.

"I can still remember them following the department around. It was dry that year and there were several grass fires," he said.

The photojournalists had Gessling put on the large boots, hat and coat of the firefighters.

"They set me up on the hood of one of the old fire trucks when they took the members' pictures," he said.

Recently, photojournalists from the school came back to Arrow Rock to update the book.

This time, Gessling is the volunteer fire captain of the Arrow Rock Fire District, which includes the historic town and the homes and countryside within a nine-mile radius.

The photojournalists didn't focus just on the fire department, where he has been a member for 20 years and chief for three years. They also focused on his family farming operation of several hundred acres where he raises hogs, cattle, corn, soybeans, wheat and hay.

"They came out and followed us around. I had a photographer with me for three days," he said.

He said they took pictures of his operation from working on cattle and spreading fertilizer to working on machinery.

They even took pictures of the family going to church and gathering at the home of his parents, Ivan and Gladys, for a Sunday family dinner.

It was about two weeks after the shoot, Gessling said, that the photographers realized that he was the person who has been at the center of "controversy" with some residents in Arrow Rock.

The controversy began in early 2007, when Gessling applied for a permit from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to build a Class IC confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) for 4,800 hogs on his farm, which is located two miles from Arrow Rock.

Although he met the DNR criteria and was awarded the permit, he hasn't begun to build the facility yet.

An Arrow Rock-based group, the Citizens to Protect State Parks and Historic Sites (CPSPHS), formed to lead a protest against his proposed facility.

Another group, including the village of Arrow Rock, the Friends of Arrow Rock and the Missouri Parks Association, filed a lawsuit against DNR and its director, Doyle Childers.

A recent judgment handed down by Cole County judge Patricia Joyce ruled in favor of the CAFO opponents and against the DNR.

Gessling had wanted to build the two buildings in order to expand his operation in hopes that his wife, son or stepsons could join him in his operation. His wife of five years, Chrissy, is a teacher at Hardeman School. They have three sons, Cody, 3, John, 14, and Chris,15.

"I've always wanted to expand. I've had dreams since I was in high school of raising hogs and raising a family," said Gessling.

The "dream" turned into a nightmare though, when the Friends of Arrow Rock and Arrow Rock citizens organized to fight against the proposed facility.

News of the controversy soon hit national media outlets. At one time, Chrissy came home with 32 pages of stories off the Internet from national and international newspapers. Gessling also received calls from as far away from Oregon, California and Washington, D.C.

They also received several threats, including some not-so-veiled death threats in the mail.

"It was bad enough that at one time I was calling my wife every hour to make sure everything was fine," said Gessling, who said the local sheriff's office has been notified.

Gessling said he had some resistance when he built his current 3,800 hog facility behind his parents' home, about four miles from Arrow Rock.

But after the facility was up and running, he said no neighbors have complained about the smell.

Although he acknowledges there is always some smell to a hog farm, he said that the newest technology to control odors would be used on the proposed site.

"This facility would be deep-pit, the newest technology. You get a little odor coming out of your pits, but nothing like you have coming out of your lagoons," he said.

Even at his current facility, which uses shallow pits and a lagoon, he said the smell is mostly seasonal.

"You get a smell every so often in the spring and in the fall, just like a pond turns over, a lagoon turns over. But it is nothing unbearable. You get farther away than 1,000 feet from the lagoon and you can't smell it."

Also like his current operation, which is permitted, Gessling will be knifing in the manure and only applying it according to current regulations, which prohibit any runoff.

"We take samples of the lagoon, have analysis done of it to know my nutrient level and then soil test, and apply accordingly that way and keep all the records of how much is applied. That has to be sent in to the DNR every year," he said.

He said they are also very careful of when they apply the fertilizer.

"With us knifing it in, it pretty much eliminates all odor, but we try not to do any spreading on the weekends or close to a special event like the 4th (of July) or if we know the neighbors are going to have family around," he said.

Gessling said he feels the controversy arose because too many people were misinformed and jumped to conclusions.

"Too many outside people coming in and not knowing about raising livestock and then not asking questions and just jumping to conclusions," he said, when asked about the biggest misconceptions he has faced.

He said those opposing his facility have also read and heard about "the bad experiences that some have had with other people in the industry."

"I kept telling people we're not all like these people," he said, but, he said he was told, "all of you are bad."

Gessling said he wished that the opponents wouldn't have jumped to conclusions that his proposed facility would ruin the historical value of Arrow Rock.

"The technology is out there to not completely eliminate it, but to hold it way down. But if you keep it managed and keep on top of it, you're not going to have a big odor problem," he said, adding that he planned on planting trees around the facility to absorb carbon dioxide and diffuse odor.

In fact, Gessling said the University of Missouri-Columbia had contacted him and wanted use his facility for research.

"They were going to plant windbreaks, trees that were already established and tall. They had received a grant and were going to spend several dollars to implement this," he said; however, since the facility wasn't built ,they had to spend the grant money on another project.

Another misconception has been that Gessling is a "corporate farmer" because he raises the hogs on contract with Carthage Veterinary in Carthage, Ill.

"We're no different than 'Joe Blow' in Kansas City coming out here and buying farm ground and turning around and renting it to somebody else," he said. "We have the buildings and we are renting the buildings out."

Gessling, who has only one part-time employee, does the work mostly himself, although his wife, father and stepsons do help, too. He is responsible for feeding and daily care of the animals. He also pays for the water and electricity. The company provides the feed, transportation in and out and medicine.

Gessling said that no matter what he has said, those opposing his operation have not listened.

"What's sad is, if we're not careful, we're going to have to start watching our food just as much as we're watching our toys because livestock production is all going to be shipped out of the country," he said. "Oil is nothing compared to if somebody holds us hostage with food.

"We're the most bountiful nation in the world, but if environmentalists and people keep it up our foods are going north of the border or south of the border."

Although others have asked him why he isn't getting "mad," he said he is taking everything in stride.

"I have a business to run. I don't have time to sit around and ponder," he said.

Gessling and his family attend St. Paul's Lutheran Church, where he has gone ever since he was born. His mother is an organist in the church, his dad an elder and Gessling serves as a trustee.

He and his sister, Judith Rieth, also present the Gessling Family Farm scholarship each year to a Slater High School FFA member pursuing a career in agriculture.

The scholarship is in honor of his brother, Allen, who was killed in an automobile crash in 2003.

See also:

Farmer at heart of CAFO controvery lives dream of raising hogs:

www.marshallnews.com/story/1458429.html

Judge rules in favor of Arrow Rock CAFO opponents:

www.marshallnews.com/story/1455898.html

Ruling in Arrow Rock case does not affect current CAFOs:

www.marshallnews.com/story/1456718.html

Contact Marcia Gorrell at marshallag@socket.net