Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig visited a farm in Greene County that recently built a hoop barn for cattle. 

Justin Robbins of Robbins Land + Cattle installed the new structure to house part of their cattle operation that Robbins said for the cow/calf portion there was 120 head, with the capacity to go up to 150. He commented that there are automatic curtains on the north and south sides of the hoop building, along with high tech cameras. Robbins pointed out one of the ear tags could alert him of when a cow was ready to be impregnated, if it needed medical attention, among other information. He also talked about how he could apply 400 acres of fertilizer from the new structure and lay out two days worth of feed at a time.

While it wasn’t the first time Naig had seen the hoop structure in the state that Robbins had, he was impressed with how Robbins was learning how to best utilize it for his needs.

“This is a beautiful investment here and one that we’d like to see more of. Learning about the economics of it, the management of it, and certainly always wanting to hear from Justin what are the hot topics that he’s thinking about in terms of his operation. So nice visit out here and it’s a nice looking facility.”     

Naig commented that he wished he would have made it to the open house that was held to recognize the hoop building on March 14th when experts from all sections of the agriculture industry were on hand with the Coalition to Support Iowa Farmers as the host. Friday’s stop in Greene County was part of Naig’s 99-county tour that he does annually.