“Musings of a Pig Farmer”
by Larry Sailer

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity. Not only am I trying to get my crops harvested, but I’ve been swamped with calls from the media for interviews. In just two days’ time, I received calls from Reuter’s, Fox News Network and a network from Japan! This is on top of the Franklin County’s Harvest Tour 2012 for bloggers.

These media inquiries really took me by surprise and served as a real eye opener to me about the power of the Internet. A hog farmer — in the middle of farm country in North Central Iowa — is not someone or someplace that comes readily to mind as the center of media attention. Through Google and interviews and blogs, however, it’s not possible to hide on the farm any more.

When I set out to share the story of farming and to listen to what people removed from the farm were concerned about, I didn’t really think about how exposed I would become. I have to tell you this farmer would just as soon hide in the hog barn as be in the spotlight. Yet, here I am being featured by national media outlets. Crazy!

The first interview with Reuter’s was pretty painless. We talked on the phone for about 10 minutes, discussing the “Farm Bill”. Pretty easy stuff. I always try to talk about what I know and what affects me here in Iowa. The Farm Bill is such a complicated piece of legislation that I’m not surprised it’s so difficult to reach consensus. Not only is farming and ranching very diverse across this country, but the SNAP program and so many other issues are wrapped up in the same bill. On top of that, Congress is trying to reduce the budget. No wonder the Farm Bill has yet to pass!

Fox News wanted to talk about the upcoming election and what I think are the most important issues. Now I know they’re going to trim what I say into about 15 or maybe 30 seconds. Believe me, that does not cover my thoughts. I can’t wait to view it this Thursday to see what Fox chose as my sound bite. They did video our soybean harvest to give viewers a farming flavor.

The next video crew was from Japan, and they were on my farm for two full days. This will have to be a whole new blog, which I plan to post in a couple weeks.

I do want to talk about our Franklin County Harvest Bloggers Tour, which is held (1) to showcase our county’s tourism attractions and (2) to help non-farmers understand how their food is raised. This is the second year that I’ve been involved with this event. I’m including pictures shared by Deb Brown. Pictures show the people involved much better than I can describe this tour.

The first bloggers tour in October 2011 is the reason I blog. That and the help and patience of Shannon Latham, who lets me share a guest blog every Tuesday on TheFieldPosition.com.

I survived last week and even harvested some crop with the help of my family. Special thanks to my wife, Janice, who kindly made food and ran after me for three days. My son Corey and grandson Devin drove combine plus daughter Charlotte helped make food and brought along more Grandkids, Darin and Carlie, to make my place a little more video friendly.

I can understand why many farmers resist doing this type of sharing because it does take time and effort. Plus, it exposes a very personal part of our lives to the world. But if we want to have a conversation with the people who consume what we produce — and help them understand why we do what we do — then we need to be transparent. We must let them see inside our operations.

Farmers raise corn and soybeans, which make the feed for our hogs.  By feeding grain to our hogs, we add value to the raw corn and soybeans.  The process of growing pigs and producing that great tasting bacon also generates “natural fertilizer.”

Natural fertilizer is another name for manure, and it’s not waste – it’s a valuable asset!  A grain farmer thinks of manure as a valuable asset because it’s a very effective fertilizer, which is needed to produce high-yielding crops.  The natural fertilizer that my pigs produce is in high demand by area farmers, who put down it on their farm ground to serve as plant food for next year’s crop.  You might even say that farmers were recycling manure before the rest of society started adopting green efforts.

One advantage of recycling manure is that it helps reduce the cost of crop inputs.  Commercial fertilizer is very expensive, so using manure helps reduce crop input costs.  Using this locally produced fertilizer is a win-win deal: crop farmers need fertilizer and livestock farmers must dispose of manure in an environmentally sound manner.

Applying manure is heavily controlled by regulations.  I’m required to file a Manure Management Plan with county officials and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  This plan includes soil test results, crop rotation plans, soil types and the erodibility of the soil.  Every detail you can imagine needs to be spelled out in this document!  What it all boils down to is this: it’s against the law to pollute the surface or ground waters of the State of Iowa.

While I support efforts to protect the environment, I also believe we need to exercise some common sense.  These laws, which prompt rules, often begin with the best of intentions.  Not all regulations produce the desired outcomes, however.  For example, all of the regulations that groups like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) helped pass have resulted in many smaller producers calling it quits!

Regulations can be extremely costly to farmers, and this is one reason I’ve become so active in trying to control regulations.  Lawmakers need to hear how laws and rules will impact farmers.  The general public, which largely influences those political votes, also has a need to be in the know.  That’s why I’m inviting you to watch my video blog series to learn more about how and why I raise pork.  Please contact me with any questions you have about modern day hog production.  I’ll look forward to some online dialogue!