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Pork expansions bring better technologies to industry

An extension educator says pork producers are turning transportation savings from the new processing plant in the Eastern Corn Belt into new production facilities.

Dale Rozeboom with Michigan State University tells Brownfield pork producers who have expanded are spending at least two years between selecting new sites and meeting regulatory approvals before pigs can enter the barn.  “Siting and choosing of a facility is not just something that is done haphazardly, it’s really done with a lot of study and then there’s the accountability that the state has.”

Rozeboom says facilities are utilizing new technologies like air filtering systems that clean the air entering barns to improve pig health.  “To filter out not just particulates, but filtering out viral particles.  The potential for a pathogen to get into the air that the sows breathe is minimized.”  He says filtering systems also clean the air on the way out of barns to reduce odors and the ammonia that collected is used as fertilizer.  “The air that leaves the facility is also being cleaned and it’s a different cleaning mechanism called a water scrubber.  That is removing some 40 to 50 percent of the particulate matter and odors.”

Rozeboom says expansion are happening with family farms that are engaging with their local communities throughout the process and taking extra precautions to protect the environment.

AUDIO: Interview with Dale Rozeboom during Spartanwood Sow Farm open house

  • Thanks Dale for the work you do. Congratulation on the well managed growth you have there. If we do what we do, right, as we grow we can be a good neighbor. Having social permission to operate and grow animals in a community will make our industry sustainable!

  • Thank you Dale for what you do. Congratulations on the new plant and the well managed growth you have there in your state. Pork production facilities can be a good neighbor and be “sustainable” as an industry if we have “Social Permission” to operate. Careful site selection, openness, transparency, implementing the latest environmental technology, and following regulations are the key ingredients to success. It seems to me that this is the track you are on.

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