http://www.futurenet.org/14foodforlife/devore.htmSo many are taking a different route: combining some old-fashioned animal husbandry with new, low-tech facility design and sophisticated ideas about the relationships between livestock and the land.
In dairy, beef, and poultry production, this new ecologically based farming has taken the form of management-intensive rotational grazing, a system where animals move frequently through a series of grass-filled paddocks.
But it’s the sustainable trends in hog farming that have caught the most attention recently. Hundreds of hoop houses have been erected in the Midwest in the past half-dozen years by small farmers like the Frantzens, who market about 1,200 pigs annually.
The family was sold on the system from the start. For one thing, it could be set up for about a third of the cost of a confinement facility. In addition, the pigs were healthier because they were allowed to follow their natural instincts to socialize and nest. Finally, when the manure mixed with the straw, it created a composting “pack” that kept the animals warm and served as a valuable fertilizer for crops.
Still, Tom was apprehensive about making such a significant switch from a system that had the agri-science seal of approval. His concerns were put to rest when he turned those first pigs loose in a just-completed hoop house one day in September 1997.
“They ran around all day long, and they must have run around all night long, too, because when I went out to the building the next morning I will never forget what I found,” he recalls. “I peeked into the hoop house to see 180 pigs in one massive straw nest – snoring. I laughed until I cried. Their stress was gone, and so was mine. I know I’ll never go back to confinement. Once you cross that road, there is no way you can go back.”
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
