2013 Central Indiana Pork Conference Report

I want to throw in a brief report about the 2013 Central Indiana Pork Conference held February 6. As I was the site host I did have to bounce around a bit from time to time, particularly in the morning, but I'll provide as much of a summary as I can. Also, pdf's of most of the presentations are up on the Clinton County Extension Office website.

Paul Clouser from Indiana Packers was the first presenter and this is the one I missed the most of. However I did catch a few items which caught my attention. First, they wanted to congratulate producers for helping them by providing higher quality animals to their plant. Since DDGS have become a substantial portion of swine rations Iodine Values and carcass quality have been a big industry issue and they had far less of a problem with this recently than they did a year or two ago.

He wanted to caution farmers on several aspects of production. One, which I intend to use in my PQA programs from now on, is that if you have a broken needle in an animal, euthanize it. My suggestion, so long as it meets all withdrawal standards, would be either to process it for your own use at home or send it to a processor and donate the meat to a food bank. However they don't want these animals at the plant. He also wanted farmers to be aware that as much of their business involves overseas markets, they should be aware of and follow IPC's corporate residue limits which in some cases are more stringent than US standards.

The Industry Outlook provided by Purdue Ag Economist Chris Hurt focused, unsurprisingly, on feed prices. He made the "official" prediction that US corn prices will experience the largest drop in history, $2.50 by next summer. Of course prices will still be above $5.00. He considers this to be a "sweet spot" where both grain farmers and pork producers should be able to turn a profit. Current stocks are short so this will be very weather-driven but he sees a good possibility of a long, slow decline with, if it looks like the crop is good, a rapid price drop in early July. With decent weather the next few years he thinks a long-term price outlook is for corn in the $5 range and soybeans around $11. With bad weather it's hard to tell where things might go. Another drought could drive corn over $10 and soybeans to $20. Ultimately, he believes that if the weather cooperates, the industry should see a return to profitability by the second quarter of 2013.

Brian Martin and Wes Lack from MP3 farms discussed a new sow unit they recently installed which uses an automated electronic feeding system and houses sows in groups rather than using gestation stalls. They provided a great deal of information on how the system works, how they train farm employees as well as gilts to use the system and other aspects which I won't detail here. They also operate an older sow unit which uses gestation stalls so they were able to provide some interesting comparative date over production in the two systems. Very briefly, while sow mortality is slightly higher with this system, overall performance of animals in the two systems has been very comparable when looking at areas such as pigs/sow/year and lbs/sow/year. One area which doesn't show up in the numbers is that they said the sows in this system are very easy to handle and work; very calm and easygoing.

I'll use their talk as a jumping-off point to editorialize a little. I've been at several programs recently including those sponsored by the National Pork Board and animal handling and housing is a prominent theme. Despite research which shows that sows get along fine in gestation stalls and other similar production-related issues, we live in a new age. At one time in this country, people were primarily worried about having enough to eat. They progressed from that to a concern over the quality of what they eat. Today many people are concerned with how animals are raised. In any business where you're producing a product for consumers, consumer preferences is a driver. Animal handling standards, housing systems, etc., should definitely be considered in animal operations. It's a basis for the Pork Quality Assurance (PQA Plus) program which almost all Pork Producers receive certification through. If I'm talking to a farmer who's considering building a new breeding/gestation/production unit, I would urge him or her to strongly consider a group housing system for sows. At this point I wouldn't advise spending a lot of money to convert an existing facility but for new construction I think farmers need to give it serious thought. The industry has been heading in this direction for some time now and I see no indication that this trend will stop.

Aflatoxin was a serious problem in corn this year and farmers know that this was a big issue in feeding hogs. Brian Richert from the Purdue Animal Sciences Department discussed issues related to this. A portion of this was related to levels at which hogs can tolerate Aflatoxin, strategies and methods of maintaining feed quality and preventing toxin development. I was more interested when he started talking about how some approved flowables - products added to grain to prevent clumping due to moisture - also can substantially mitigate the impacts of Aflatoxin in feed by serving as binders. In this area most farmers were able to blend feed enough to keep Aflatoxin levels down to acceptable levels but if you want to plan for a year where this may be next to impossible, Brian's presentation would be a very good starting point to start looking into these binders as another option.

This was a very good program. I was disappointed that numbers were down this year and will be looking at ways to bring this back up next year. For those who attended, thanks for coming and a big thank you goes out to the Rossville FFA Chapter who provided lunch.

Meeting on Changes to IDEM Confined Feeding Rules

Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana Ag Commodity groups and Purdue Extension are organizing a series of meetings to update producers on the changes to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's (IDEM) Confined Feeding Rule. The programs will be held on June 19 in Decatur County, June 26 in Wells County and June 28 at the Southern Indiana Purdue Ag Center (SIPAC) in Dubois County.

I will be hosting a live videoconference of the Tuesday, June 26 meeting from 1-4 p.m. at the Clinton County Extension Office, 1111 South Jackson Street in Frankfort. I don't have a lot of details at this time however I'm sure I'll have copies of program materials to hand out so I'd appreciate you letting me know if you're planning to attend. You can call our office at 765-659-6380 or 765-296-3511 or you can e-mail me.

The complete program agenda is listed below:

CFO and CAFO NPDES Compliance Education Meetings

Welcome – Greg Slipher

Fact sheets & Comparison document

Rule Development Process – Andy Tauer

·         Timeline

·         Ag workgroup, member input, submission of comments

·         Negotiated compromise where possible but some issues unable to change

o   Groundwater monitoring requirements

o   Phosphorus soil test limits

o   Restrictions on application to frozen or snow covered ground

CAFO NPDES Rule Requirements – Josh Trenary

·         Only actual discharges require an NPDES permit

o   Ongoing discharges, such as non-contact cooling water from dairies 

o   Operations with a history of accidental discharges may also be required to maintain their NPDES permit if they can’t show that the cause of the discharge has been remedied

·         Transition to CFO

·         General permits going away

·         Nutrient Management Plans requirements

o   Public notice and comment

o   Substantial changes

·         No application to frozen or snow covered ground unless allowed under permit

·         Steps must be taken to prevent contamination to stormwater

·         Digesters, etc

CFO Rule Requirements – Justin Schneider

·         Alternative design or compliance approach

·         Manure application will be based upon both phosphorus and nitrogen limits

o   Applications to fields over 200 ppm of P is prohibited for most large CAFOs and all newly constructed operations

o   Existing CFOs and large CAFOs constructed prior to February 13, 2003 have seven years to phase-in application restrictions to 200 ppm of P

o   Some allowances made for nitrogen loss estimates

·         Application to frozen or snow covered ground is restricted

o   Large CAFOs may not apply to frozen or snow covered ground

o   Emergency applications with prior approval allowed for CFOs

o   CFOs with one-hundred twenty days or less approved storage can seek approval to apply

·         Ground water monitoring may be required

·         Storm water management must be implemented – Josh Trenary

·         A professional engineer must certify the construction of all liquid manure storage structures – Mike Dunn

·         Construction standards and technical resources – Mike Dunn

·         How to use forms – Record keeping – Tamilee Nennich/Mike Dunn

Lawsuit Related Issues – Justin Schneider

·         Permit appeals

·         Nuisance suits

Outreach prior to decision to construct or expand – Greg Slipher

Q & A - Presenters

IDEM CAFO/CFO Rule Open Houses

Listed below is the text of a message I received this morning announcing Open Houses to discuss the revised CFO/CAFO Rules which go into effect on July 1 of this year:

Indiana Department of Environmental Management E-News Media Advisory

For immediate release
April 5, 2012

IDEM holding open house meetings to assist farmers with the new confined feeding rule requirements

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) is holding a series of open –house style meetings across the state to make staff available to meet with farmers operating confined feeding operations (CFOs) and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Rule revisions affecting confined feeding operations (CFOs) were adopted by the Water Pollution Control Board in November 2011, and go into effect July 1, 2012. The rule changes eliminate the “General Permit” category for farms regulated by federal farm rules. Farms with a general permit must determine if they need to be covered by Indiana’s CFO permit or a federal “Individual Permit.”

In addition, the rule changes place restrictions on land application of manure based on phosphorus limits and land application to frozen or snow covered ground. IDEM staff will be available at the open houses to answer questions and assist farmers and operators in transitioning their permit to make sure they maintain appropriate permit coverage under the new rules.

The Open Houses will be held on the following dates and locations:

Monday, April 9, 2012
2 – 8 p.m.
Carroll County 4-H Building
102 Fourth, Flora, IN 46929
(East side of Flora on SR 18)

Thursday, April 12, 2012
2 – 8 p.m.
Huntington County Courthouse
D.A.R. Room, 2nd Floor
Use Jefferson Street Entrance
201 North Jefferson Street
Huntington, IN 46750

Monday, April 16, 2012
2 – 8 p.m.
Decatur County Extension Office
545 S 200 W
Greensburg, IN 47240

Wednesday, April 18, 2012
2 – 8 p.m.
Dubois County Fairgrounds
Clover Pavilion
4157 S SR 162
Huntingburg, IN 47542