Iowa farmer makes a sorrowful choice

[orleans]

As waters rise, he leaves hogs behind

OAKVILLE, Iowa - By the time a friend sped up the lane to Ron Lanz's farm Saturday evening—shouting that the Iowa River levee had blown—Lanz knew he faced a fateful decision: To save his own life, more than 800 of his hogs would have to die.

By instinct, Lanz shut the door on the semitrailer that was half-filled with hogs. He feared a wall of water might rush across his 450-acre farm any minute. Then Lanz jumped into the bed of his friend's pickup truck and rode for his life.

It's a decision Lanz is having a hard time living with.

"It's devastating to leave those hogs behind," said Lanz, 36. "I don't like to think about it."

snip

Crop losses across Iowa are expected to hit at least $1 billion. But no estimates are readily available for the number of livestock that have drowned or are running free. When a just-formed legislative commission begins studying the flood's impact on Iowa's livestock industry, hog farmers will get particular attention, in part because Iowa is the nation's largest hog-producing state, with Hawkeye farmers taking in some $3 billion each year.

snip

As estimates of the 2008 flood crests rose, by a foot a day last week, Ron Lanz never seriously considered moving his hogs. Even when TriOak Foods last week pulled its 4,500 pigs out of the Lanz feeding sheds, Lanz and his cousins decided to stand pat.

more
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-hog-farmersjun18,0,4678357.story

[leftchick]

1. it is actually probably a better death than the slaughterhouse.

I would never eat a pig, or cow, or lamb.....


Meat your Food....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4

[roody]

3. They live in confinement and their waste

pollutes the groundwater.

[BonnieJW]

8. I won't eat turkey or chicken either.

The agribusiness is unbelievably barbaric. There is one farm here in Virginia that I wouldn't mind purchasing meat from. The animals have one bad day and all the reast are free and happy. It's called Polyface Farm in Swope, Virginia. We live 150 miles away from it and don't have a chance to travel that far for meat.

[anigbrowl]

2. Procrastination is the thief of time

Maybe if he had a better a emergency plan in place (like the company that pulled their hogs out of his feeding sheds) then he wouldn't have had to leave as many of them at the last minute (did manage to relocate several thousand). Sure, that would cost money, but hogs have value so they would do as collateral. Losing 1-200 of them to balance the stall rental (or whatever the technical term is for renting your space to store someone else's animals) would be a lot cheaper than losing all 800 of them.

Somehow I suspect that if Mr Lanz loses all his hogs he'll be asking the taxpayer to help foot the bill....but I don't think he should get too much help with it, because he postponed his decision until the last minute and is partly responsible for the results of his bad decision.

[LeftyMom]

4. My heart weeps for him.

:sarcasm:

[ellenfl]

5. sounds like the katrina argument some made.

"Somehow I suspect that if Mr Lanz loses all his hogs he'll be asking the taxpayer to help foot the bill....but I don't think he should get too much help with it, because he postponed his decision until the last minute and is partly responsible for the results of his bad decision."

ellen fl

[LeftyMom]

6. That's not my post.

I just think that if he was going to kill those hogs soon anyhow, he's got some grade A cognitive dissonance going on if he's so upset about them dying because of his inaction instead.

[ellenfl]

10. (oops, sorry, too many reply buttons!) eom

[eilen]

9. Do you have any idea what it takes to move 800 hogs?

800 Hogs. 800 Hogs not ready for slaughter.


800 Hogs who live in a barn that you have to gown up and put a mask on so as not to infect them with any airborne viruses you might carry (good thing because the stench is unbelieveable).

Worse, I hate to think what will happen to the manure lagoons on his farm.

[deaniac21]

7. Dang, This makes me hungry!

[Condem]

11. Too much of that shit out here.

Heartbreaking!

[uppityperson]

12. That is sad, deserting animals you are responsible for.

When Lanz visited a patch of high ground Monday, he found roughly 30 pigs had survived. "They're not like pets or anything," Lanz said. "But they're something we're responsible for. And this work is something we hope our boys would want to do one day."
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I know they were being grown for food, but to have to leave them to be treated in this must've been very hard for him. And for the pigs.

[Condem]

13. I'm a firm believer in what comes around, goes around

Someday, Mr. Lanz......