Earlier this week, the Greene County Supervisors recommended approval for a hog confinement expansion.
Bradley Freking of New Fashion Pork LLP recently purchase a hog operation in Cedar Township, near A Avenue and County Road E-26. There are currently 3,000 head of hogs and the Certified Feeding Animal Operation (CAFO) wanted to expand the facility to include a 102-foot by 160-foot gilt development building and add another 1,600 hogs for a total of 4,600. Before the company could do that, they had to undergo a Master Matrix review by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Master Matrix is a scoring system that the DNR uses to determine if a hog expansion or a new establishment meets their standards for a clean and responsible operation. 88 counties currently use the Master Matrix for hog confinements.
New Fashion Pork received a score of 550 out of a possible 880. The minimum score that’s allowed by the DNR is 440. The current process is that a public hearing must be held and a review must be done by a County Board of Supervisors. Even if the Supervisors object and vote “no” for a hog project, as long as the Master Matrix score is over 440, the DNR can overrule the Board. Supervisor Chair John Muir says he’s comfortable with the DNR handling the process, but he would like to see the Supervisors have more of a decision.
“I think the (Master) Matrix could have some updates done to it, and part of that be that our (Supervisors) recommendation to the DNR pulls more weight. I know on this Board (of Supervisors), the few (hog confinements) we’ve questioned were legitimately I think questioned or we wouldn’t of.”
Muir believes that if Supervisors are given total control, there could be 99 different rules for how hog confinements are set up. He thinks that if that happens, it could lead to more activity along county lines, because a company could find where the rules would fit for them.
Some of the questions the Supervisors had for New Fashion Pork included an enclosure plan, putting landscape around the operation and injecting manure into the soil. Director of Environmental Services for New Fashion Pork Jay Moore included an enclosure plan, but said they have no plans for landscape or injecting manure at that time.
The Supervisors voted 3-1 to recommend that New Fashion Pork be allowed to expand their hog confinement.
Greene County Assessor Linda Spearman says there are 183 CAFO’s in the County and Cedar Township has the second highest amount of buildings with 19. New Fashion Pork owns 12 other buildings in the County. Only 30 of the 183 are owned by companies, the rest of owned by Greene County residents.
List of townships with CAFO’s in Greene County:
Cedar Township = 19 buildings
Highland Township = 18 buildings
Dawson Township = 5 buildings
Paton Township = 4 buildings
Kendrick Township = 9 buildings
Bristol Township = 15 buildings
Hardin Township = 13 buildings
Junction Township = 32 buildings
Scranton Township = 3 buildings
Jackson Township = 2 buildings
Grant Township = 4 buildings
Junction South/Washington N = 11 buildings
Willow Township = 18 buildings
Greenbrier Township = 13 buildings
Franklin Township = 9 buildings
Washington Township = 8 buildings
Company owned buildings:
Prestage = 9 buildings
Fancy Bar = 5 buildings
New Fashion = 12 buildings
B S Pork, LLC = 4 buildings
Greene County owners = 153 buildings