A public hearing that drew lots of opinions at Monday’s Greene County Board of Supervisors meeting was regarding a new hog confinement. 

The two-building site is in Highland Township, near Churdan, with Stumpf Finishers, LLC, that will be owned by Todd Stumpf. The buildings will hold 4,995 hogs and received a master matrix score of 460, with the minimum score required by the DNR at 440. Stumpf said he is hiring a company in Carroll County to operate the facility and is contracting with Seaboard Foods. He lives in Calhoun County and said the area has several sites from companies like Iowa Select Farms and Prestige Farms. 

“I don’t have an opportunity to work with these groups, whereas Seaboard (Foods) allows the opportunity for people to own the barns and work with farm owners, landowners that want the manure and tenants that want the manure.”

A neighbor of the hog confinement site is Chuck Bertelli. He voiced opposition to the proposal, saying having another hog building in the area will infringe on his rights as a property owner.

“We have rights here, the town of Churdan has the right to breathe. The (County) Supervisors has a responsibility to address the discrepancies and irregularities that are in the matrix so far.”

About 11 other individuals joined Bertelli’s opposition and three others spoke in Stumpf’s defense. They talked about Stumpf’s character, 25 years of experience in the hog industry, and bringing more economic development to the County.

Following the hearing, the Supervisors voted 4-1 to recommend approval of the confinement. The lone dissenting vote was Supervisor Dawn Rudolph who remarked the proposal was poorly handled and poorly communicated. Supervisor Tom Contner voted in favor but added he doesn’t typically vote for a hog confinement if the person is not local or does not use local labor. However, he felt this project will be of benefit to farmers and those working with the facility. According to the DNR, Greene County currently has 110 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and of those 102 are swine, with 16 located in Highland Township.