Arrow Rock farmer interested in 'value-added' agriculture

Kahla, back left, and Jon Burge, back right sit, holding their children Albert, front left, and William, front right. (Eric Crump/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Calling hogs a "labor of love," Burge recently announced he will be changing his traditional operation to take advantage of "value-added" agriculture.

"With what I've come up with, environmentally speaking, neighbor speaking, this is the way to go with hogs," said Burge, adding he has been researching the subject for the last few years.

A 1999 Marshall High School graduate, Burge has had hogs on the farm since he was an FFA member. The love of hog farming has been passed down through his family.

"It's come down from his great-grandfather, down to his grandfather," said Jon's grandmother Mary Burge.

"My dad, Albert Hogge, was a cattle and hog farmer," she said, adding that her husband, Bill Burge, was a hog farmer as well. "Bill used to tell Jon if you want to farm you've got to have hogs because that's what pays off the mortgage. He said you've been working with these hogs all your life, and you need to keep them up."

Starting in early 2010, Burge will be building three "deep-bedded" hoop barns behind the home he shares with his wife, Kahla, and sons William, 2, and Albert, 9 months.

"The ones I'm looking at are tarp-covered," he explained. "They have a clear run down the middle to let the light in, so basically what they are doing is simulating the pasture."

The open-ended shelters are bedded with cornstalks, which Burge will bale himself "if I can afford a baler" or purchase from area farmers.

"It's in a controlled environment, so you don't have the runoff issues, and everything is held in a solid format," he said.

His plan calls for having 24 sows, which will give birth approximately twice a year in groups of 12. The sows will be kept on grass until right before they give birth. Then they will be brought into one of the shelters and kept in portable pens for the first two weeks after birth.

"It will give them enough room to turn around and lay down and do their natural nesting behavior while they're still in their pens," he said.

"But after two weeks the pens are removed and it's actually a group lactaction system," said Burge.

The group lactation system is something he has already been doing in his hog herd, in which he has had 10 to 15 sows off and on since high school.

"I have double hog houses, 16 by 8 foot, and I'd just put two sows in there and they'd cross-foster by themselves. It's a different world when you spend a lot of time with them. They're pretty intelligent animals. They'll take care of their own," he said. The baby pigs will be weaned from their mothers after eight weeks.

"At weaning, the sows will be brought out and the pigs will be finished in the shelter," he said. Burge said although others using the system say the buildings will keep the hogs cool, he probably will use foggers because he'd rather be "safe than sorry."

Hogs don't have sweat glands, so they are susceptible to Missouri's hot weather.

The hogs will be sold at finished weight at approximately 6 months of age.

Burge said according to his research, there shouldn't be much odor from his operation.

"The research I read said this will actually smell less than a pastured operation of a similar size," he said.

"How this system works basically is when you bring the sows in, you'll have laid their straw. You'll remove their pens and you'll have hopefully 16 inches of straw. Then every week you go back and add bedding to it, one to two times a week to keep it dry. So basically at the end of the cycle you've got a layer of bedding, a layer of manure, a layer of bedding, a layer of manure and that somehow traps in all of the odor and eliminates runoff issues," he explained, adding it will probably be about four feet deep by the time the hogs are finished. "Then at the end of the turn, you remove all of the bedding and you take it to a separate spot where it composts for a year. Then you go back in the building with ag lime."

After composting the waste for a year, it will be spread with a manure spreader on the family's farm fields which are rented out to an area farmer.

"The composted manure, assuming it was composted correctly, eliminates the odor because it's already been broken down in the compost pile. It's basically what you get out of your garden after you compost your household stuff," he said.

With this system, at any time on the farm one structure will be empty and airing out until the next group of hogs is brought in.

"Basically what I'm looking at is two groups of 12 sows or 24 sows. If I'm lucky and all the stars are in alignment, I'll have 120 pigs a group. Then there will be 120 that will have been born," he said, "That leaves one of the buildings idle most of the time."

Burge said he will be raising a total of 480 hogs a year on the farm, although they won't all be there at any one time.

In a time when many hog farmers have had to get much larger to make ends meet, Burge said he will taking advantage of the new trend of some consumers to buy "natural."

Although not finalized, his plan calls for marketing through a group with strict standards for "naturally raised" hormone- and antibiotic-free pork, who pay a premium to approved producers.

"The best way to describe this is like the old farmer co-op. This is just a marketing group. They buy your hogs, then they butcher them, and I think a majority of their product goes to San Francisco and New York," he said.

However, he will have flexibility to sell hogs locally.

"Being a part of this if you come up to me and say hey I want to buy a hog -- I can do that. It's nothing binding," Burge said, adding that several people in Arrow Rock have already expressed an interest in buying from him.

Local restaurants will also have an opportunity to buy meat that came from Burge's locally grown hogs.

Right now, Burge is in the transition phase and has sold most of his hogs. He will be buying sows and boars from a "pre-approved breeder" in order to be part of the marketing group.

"That's one of the reasons I cleared out what I had. So I could bring in their pre-approved breed stock," he said.

Before he can be part of the group, his farm and facilities will be inspected and then re-inspected periodically.

"They'll come down and inspect it and say 'yes this meets our standards,'" he said.

"They say at least twice a year and periodically as they see needed, they can come do unannounced visits and make sure what you're doing is following their standards," he said.

Burge will be feeding his hogs corn, soybean meal and commercially purchased mineral supplement. The feed has to follow the group's standards of no bone meal, no animal products or antibiotics. The farm also has to be family-owned, and the labor must be provided by the family.

The hoop barns he uses also have to provide the pigs with enough natural light.

"That's one of the requirements, that in the middle of the housing without any artificial lighting, you have to be able to read a newspaper," he said. Burge said he will also be working with a veterinarian from the group, in order to follow the guidelines. However, he said if an animal is sick and needs treatment with antibiotics, he would do that, but separate the animal to be sold through a traditional market.

"They don't want the animals to suffer. They'd rather have you treat it and sell it another way," he said.

Although he said his small herd might not make as much as a large contract herd, this marketing group "helps the little guy out."

"This is all part of the value-added industry," he said. "Agriculture went from everybody had a little to everybody wanted to grab a lot. And now it's getting back to where a lot of people are wanting less commercialized -- kind of the naturally raised, no hormones -- and obviously they are willing to pay a premium for that. This group offers that," he said.

So far, Burge said the reaction to his new operation has been mostly favorable from Arrow Rock neighbors.

"I think they kind of have the same feeling I do -- that it's a chance to prove we can do it this way," he said. "It can be beneficial for me and the neighbors."

Contact Marcia Gorrell at marshallag@socket.net