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Hog Heaven facility opens near Melbourne

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - The new Iowa Select Farms finisher facility,1779 320th St., will get its first pigs the week after Thanksgiving.

Hundreds of visitors stopped by the newly-constructed Iowa Select Farms Hog Heaven facility near Melbourne Thursday and learned about some of the new tech to be used for odor reduction and sustainability.

The 1779 320th St. site, which is run by the Vansice family, took about four months to be built and is set to receive its first group of pigs the week after Thanksgiving. It will hold about 4,800 hogs.

“We pretty much take the pigs off the sow all the way to market weight,” said site manager Jordan Vansice.

He said young pigs arrive at about three weeks of age and typically stay until they reach five or six months old. Once they hit the right size, they are transported to meat processing plants in Marshalltown and Ottumwa.

As visitors went from pen-to-pen Thursday, they noticed the floor consisted of small slats. When the pigs arrive at the facility, their waste will drop through the floor to a holding tank below.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - Iowa Select Farms Senior Finishing Supervisor Tim Hermsen speaks to a group of visitors at Thursday’s open house.

That waste will be collected for use as fertilizing manure on crop fields in the fall, Vansice said.

One of the unique features of the Hog Heaven site is its odor reduction system. The barns are tunnel-shaped to allow better airflow, taking dust particles with the pigs’ smell out of the facility by way of large fans at the back of the barns.

Once the particles are blown out of the site, an electrostatic fence sends a charge through the particles.

“You’re making it sticky, essentially, electrically sticky,” said manure management expert Daniel Andersen of the Iowa State University Extension Agriculture and Biosystems Department.

Those sticky particles will be trapped by a kind of specialized net that sits just behind the electrostatic fence.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - At the back of the hog facility is a series of large fans that will blow odor-containing dust particles out of the site. An electrostatic fence will charge the particles, which will stick to the material set up behind the facility. The technology is meant to reduce the hogs’ smell.

Andersen said he has studied this same system at other hog facilities.

“We’re seeing about a 70 percent reduction in dust with exactly this type of technology,” he said.

He said the ventilation and odor-trapping system reduces the odor not carried by dust particles by about 25-30 percent. Trees are also set to be planted near the facility for further odor reduction, and Andersen said that could reduce the smell 5-15 percent.

Vansice said there was some concern from neighbors about the smell of the new hog facility. He said the odor-reducing technology put many of them at ease.

“When you explain that to them, they respect that Iowa Select’s doing the best they can to keep good neighbors,” Vansice said.

The facility was discussed at a Marshall County Board of Supervisors meeting in May, when the facility needed the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ nod to go forward with construction. The meeting was to allow for public input on the project and the board voted to recommend the DNR’s approval of the site’s construction.

Nearby residents had mixed thoughts on the project at that time. Buzzed Bee Meadery co-owner Wayne Spohnheimer said he was concerned that bad smell from the site would impact their business at 1755 340th St.

Neighboring farmer Dean Damman spoke in support of the facility. He commended the Vansice family for their responsible farming practices in the past.

Vansice said the crowd that came to visit during Thursday’s open house consisted of interested farmers, neighbors and students.

“It’s a nice turnout. I’ve very thankful and appreciate all the support,” he said.

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Contact Adam Sodders at

(641) 753-6611 or

asodders@timesrepublican.com

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