07/03

THE NATIONAL OUTREACH ARM OF USDA-SARE

Iowa producer Tom 

Frantzen employs pasture 

and cropland in managed

grazing strips that allow 

him to produce a 30-pound

feeder pig “for half the 

price you can indoors.” 

– Photo by Prescott Bergh, courtesy o

Minnesota Department of Agricultur

Profitable Pork: 

Strategies for Hog Producers

FOR 14 YEARS, NEW HAMPTON, IOWA, FARMER TOM FRANTZEN

reared hogs from farrow to finish, alternating the 1,200

hogs he raised annually from closed buildings each

winter to pastures each summer. The buildings, where

Frantzen raised the sows in pens with slatted floors,

were an unpleasant winter home. In the cold months,

the hogs did not gain weight very efficiently and

behaved aggressively.

Pig waste fell through the slats into a pit. Frantzen

pumped and disposed of manure on his crop fields,

where he grew corn, soybeans and hay.“Our manure

management was haphazard,” he recalls.“I was both

over-applying and under-utilizing those nutrients.”

Frantzen had to race to the finish line every season.

And while he always got everything done, reaching

that point was difficult and stressful. In 1992, he

decided to create a more environmentally sound system

that would be both profitable and allow him to spend

more time outside. The linchpin: a combination of 

pasture and housing that brought his livestock and

crops into sync.

Today, permanent pastures, rotating strip pastures

and cropland offer him a plethora of options for 

feeding pigs, including having them “hog down” – 

or self-harvest – crops. As they move across the fields,

the pigs spread their own manure. Deep-straw bedding

in huts or sheds provides warmth and exercise for the

animals and produces a pack of solid waste that is far

easier to handle and spread on crop fields than the

slurry from Frantzen’s former liquid manure system.

The new life cycle worked. After receiving a 

producer grant from USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture

Research and Education (SARE) program to document

the economics of farrowing hogs on pasture, Frantzen

found he could halve his feed costs compared to his

former indoor/outdoor system. The SARE grant “showed

we can produce a 30-pound feeder pig for half the

price that you can indoors,” he said.

CONTENTS

DETERMINING

THE RIGHT SYSTEM 2

DEEP STRAW SYSTEMS 3

FARROWING IN DEEP STRAW 3

FEEDER PIGS

IN HOOP STRUCTURES 4

PIGS ON PASTURE 6

MANURE MANAGEMENT 8

ODOR & POLLUTION 8

SOIL 10

ANIMAL HEALTH 10

NICHE MARKETING 11

COOPERATIVE MARKETING 12

ORGANIC PORK 14

WORKING CONDITIONS 14

RESOURCES 16

Published by the Sustainable

Agriculture Network (SAN), 

the national outreach arm 

of the Sustainable Agriculture

Research and Education 

(SARE) program, with funding by

USDA's Cooperative State

Research, Education and 

Extension Service.

Also available at:

www.sare.org/bulletin/hogs

Livestock Alternatives

sustainable 

agriculture 

n·e·t·w·o·r·k
2

Deep-straw systems

provide natural warmth

for hogs and require far

less financial investment

and risk than typical

confinement approaches.

– Photo courtesy of USDA-ARS

Over three years, Frantzen’s costs to raise a pastured

feeder pig ranged from $10 to $13.50, taking into account

all supplemental feed, land expenses and labor.

“On a farm that produces grain and finishes hogs,

we want the grain to go into the animal during the 

finishing stage and the manure to go back to the crop

fields,” said Frantzen, who also raises 75 Angus brood

cows. “From the hoops, I can put composted manure 

on the correct field at the correct time. The odors 

aren’t bad, there’s no pumping involved and it puts 

the animals in an environment they like.”

Today, Frantzen is as busy as ever, but he is a lot 

happier. “Working conditions for me weren’t nearly as

good as working outdoors,” he said. “The health of the

animals wasn’t good, either. You could almost see the

stress on the sows in the farrowing crates. Now, they

seem to enjoy life. And so do I.”

Farmers like Frantzen who successfully produce 

pork on a small scale have preserved their independence in the face of the consolidating hog industry.

In the late 1980s, hogs began disappearing from small

family farms. Now, most pigs are produced by corporations, with 35 percent of hogs sent to market produced

by just 20 firms selling more than 500,000 per year.

Usually, one company owns the pigs and retains 

farmers to raise the animals – often on the farmer’s

property, using his buildings and manure lagoons.

Those changes have narrowed choices for farmers,

steering most toward a new option – working under 

a contract using the corporation’s methods of production. Corporate contracts offer pork producers more 

certainty about earning modest profits than raising 

pigs independently but also require farmers to shoulder

considerable debt to construct confinement buildings

and assume environmental liability for manure.

The corporations own the processing plants and 

distribution system, too, effectively locking small, independent producers out of the wholesale pork market.

“It is hard for small producers to put together a semiload of market hogs or find a buyer who will even accept

hogs without a contract,” said Martin Kleinschmidt, an

analyst with the Center for Rural Affairs. “If you want 

to sell commodity hogs, you have to be big. If you want

to stay small, you have to look for niche markets.”

This bulletin showcases examples of another way to

raise pork profitably. While many of the farmers profiled

here have assumed bigger workloads – particularly in

designing hog systems that work on their farms and

identifying unique marketing channels – all appreciate

the greater flexibility and a better quality of life inherent

in systems with alternative housing or a strong pasture

component.

Use this bulletin to gain ideas about alternative swine

systems, then consult the list of resources on p. 16 for

more detailed information.

YEARS AGO, PIGS FORAGED IN PASTURES, WALLOWED IN MUD 

to stay cool and nested in family units. Now, most pig 

producers raise their animals in confinement buildings

containing thousands of pigs with sows in two-feet-wide

crates. Lately, some farmers and consumers have begun

to balk at that system.

“When the current conventional systems create 

profound, widespread concerns, we are compelled to

look elsewhere for solutions,” said Mark Honeyman, an

Iowa State University researcher and national expert on

alternative swine housing options. “The public’s growing

concern about the environment and the impact of 

vertical integration upon rural communities, worker

health and animal welfare calls for innovative approaches

and ethical judgment in the ways producers raise pigs.”

DETERMINING THE RIGHT ALTERNATIVE HOG SYSTEM

Before overhauling a hog production system, evaluate

your resources, define your goals and visualize what type

of operation might work best. In weighing your options,

consider your buildings and what might be renovated to

fit your goals, as well as your pasture or forage options.

Alternative Hog Production Systems

PART I
3

Consider also your location and whether you have

access to processing and markets. For more information

about planning for a new farm enterprise, consult “Hogs

Your Way.” (See “Resources,” p. 16)

The significantly lower start-up costs for alternative

swine systems may be one of the most convincing 

factors for producers, especially beginning farmers 

who may have difficulty raising capital. Other farmers

adopt the systems because they allow great flexibility.

Inexpensive, easy-to-build hoop structures, for example,

incur no debt and are easy to adapt for other uses.

“These systems appeal to someone who doesn’t want

to borrow capital,” said Honeyman. “If you construct a

building that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars,

you’re going to produce, whatever happens. If you 

want more flexibility, you need a lower cost option.

In a rapidly changing industry, why not create a system

that’s flexible rather than one that locks you into a 

certain production system?”

DEEP-STRAW SYSTEMS

When Swedish regulators imposed stricter animal 

welfare laws, banned sub-therapeutic antibiotics for 

livestock and passed other environmental protection

laws in the late 1980s, hog farmers pulled pigs out of

confinement crates and into group settings. By providing

deep straw bedding for groups of pigs, Swedish farmers

turned manure into a solid waste, provided warmth and

exercise and created an opportunity for the animals to

develop natural herd and social instincts that they say

promotes better animal health and less piglet mortality.

Many alternative hog systems rely on deep straw.

Mixed with the hogs’ urine and manure, the deep straw

bedding composts in hoop structures. In addition to providing heat, deep straw systems center on hogs growing

in groups and allow the pigs freedom of movement.

While much less capital-intensive than confinement

swine systems, alternative systems relying on deep straw

require careful farm management to minimize disease

and provide the feed and bedding hogs need at different stages of life. In economist parlance, raising pigs 

in these systems means more variable costs – feed,

bedding, labor – versus fixed costs such as confinement

buildings. Alternative swine researchers like to point 

out that such systems provide flexibility and less upfront investment.

While the systems are gaining in popularity, especially in England and Sweden, their use in the United

States is still clustered in the Midwest, particularly Iowa

and Minnesota. Raising hogs in deep straw can be

accomplished virtually anywhere because it keeps hogs

warm in cold climates. (It’s easier to keep hogs warm

than cool because hogs only sweat through their noses

and have difficulty losing body heat.)

“Alternative swine production systems allow more

freedom of movement and choice to the pig and require

a unique style of husbandry,” said Honeyman. In 1995,

Honeyman won a SARE grant to explore the feasibility

of importing Swedish systems here and hosted a group

of visiting Swedish researchers, farm advisers and farmers

for 10 days.

FARROWING IN DEEP STRAW

Some farmers use deep straw for farrowing piglets.

Researchers have found that providing individual 

pens with straw for farrowing sows – but larger rooms

with straw for group gestation and lactation – reduces

stress by giving the pigs and sows something to root

through. Sows on deep-bedded systems are always

group-housed, which helps encourage them to go 

into heat simultaneously.

Hog farmer Dwight Ault’s decision to move from a

confinement system to deep straw for farrowing was 

a financial necessity. The Austin, Minn., farmer had 26-

year-old crates, gates and other confinement materials

badly in need of an upgrade. Aided by a SARE producer

grant, Ault decided to emulate a system he had seen

firsthand in Sweden and converted a barn for deep-straw

farrowing. The work cost $3,000, less than one-third the

cost of replacing the confinement equipment.

“I was sick and tired of the ammonia and smell”

in the old confinement system, he said. “I figured that

my enjoyment of raising hogs would be enhanced.”

Why Switch?

Minimize environmental concerns such as water and air quality

Improve hog worker health, which can be compromised by dust 

and gases in confinement buildings

Assume less financial risk

Create fewer objectionable odors

Assume lower start-up costs

Minimize neighbor problems when farming near population centers

Manage animals rather than equipment and automated machinery

Provide pigs with access to bedding, freedom of movement, 

sunshine and each other
4

Today, Ault farrows 60 sows in the deep-bedded 

system each January, then on pasture each June.

After his second season using deep-straw farrowing,

in 1998, Ault declared he “never had better performance” from the pigs. “If anything, I’m worried that 

[production is] going to be way ahead of schedule,”

he said.

Deep-bedded farrowing requires a room large

enough to house about 10 farrowing sows. Providing

temporary farrowing boxes in the nursing rooms

enables the sows to build straw nests in which they 

give birth. Piglets stay in the boxes for up to 10 days

before farmers remove the boxes and encourage 

them to mingle with the group.

In the winter, the heat generated by the sows and 

the composting straw means farmers do not need to

provide as much supplemental heat. Large windows 

and doors allow air to flow, and ventilation systems

draw fresh air. The quiet ventilation system allows the

sows and piglets to better communicate, which may

reduce pig deaths by crushing.

In general, the Swedish farrowing system requires

more management, observation and planning than a

conventional system, but labor averages only about 

18 hours per sow per year. Sow culling rates, building

repairs, cleaning, moving, medicating and assistance 

at farrowing are lower in the Swedish system. However,

piglet mortality can be higher in the Swedish system

compared to conventional farrowing crates.

When farrowing in deep straw:

Use enough straw (usually two large round bales) 

to insulate the pigs from cold cement or ground 

to start a nursing room of eight to 10 sows.

Add a bale per week, plus more as needed.

Allow 27 square feet per sow and 81 square feet 

per sow and litter.

Be vigilant about cleanliness to prevent disease.

RAISING FEEDER PIGS IN HOOP STRUCTURES

Tent-like shelters that house hogs for a fraction of the

cost of a typical confinement house, hoop structures are

gaining in popularity as producers realize the benefits

of this simple structure that resembles a giant, opaque

greenhouse. Originally developed in Canada,“hoops”

usually hold up to 250 hogs on an earthen floor that is

heaped with a generous amount of bedding. The structures are topped with 15-feet-high steel arches covered

with fabric tarps.

Iowa State University researchers found that initial

investment was about one-third cheaper for hoop barns

than confinement barns. Confinement operations cost 

a producer $180 per pig space versus just $55 for a space

in a hoop structure. Initial hoop barn construction costs

vary from $9,000 to $16,200 to hold 200 head – compared

to $150,000 to $200,000 for confinement structures that

hold 1,000 head.

“Hoops are attractive to a lot of people who don’t have

a lot of equity to invest,” said Mike Brumm, an extension

Minnesota farmer Nolan Jungclaus’ great-grandfather homesteaded the family farm in 1896.

But a century later, the crop

farm was no longer generating

enough revenue to support the

three families involved with the

operation. 

Looking for an incomegenerating practice that would 

allow him to quit his off-farm

job and help support three 

families, Nolan Jungclaus 

decided to test a Swedish-style

system on his Minnesota farm.

With Iowa State University 

researchers and farmers, he

traveled to Sweden to look at

the systems firsthand.

Jungclaus found that Swedish

farmers fit the system to the

animal rather than the animal

to the system. In so doing, hog

producers must have excellent

animal husbandry skills, an 

appreciation of pig behavior, 

attention to detail and a desire

to work with pigs in a more 

natural environment. 

In 1994, Jungclaus received 

a SARE producer grant to adapt

an existing 36-by-60 foot 

machinery pole shed to accommodate four phases of Swedishstyle swine production: breeding/gestation, farrowing, nursery

and finishing. Lack of experience

with livestock led the Jungclauses

to decide on a low-cost structure that would be adaptable

enough to allow the family to

use their investment in other

ways, if necessary. 

“We wanted to maintain

flexibility in our operations so

that if we were poor managers

or if there were drastic changes

within the hog industry, we

could still salvage our investment,” Jungclaus recalls. “Our

goal was to diversify the current

SWEDISH-STYLE HOG PRODUCTION IN MINNESOTA – By Lisa Bauer

– Photo by Ken Schneider
5

swine specialist at the University of Nebraska. “They can

pay the day-to-day costs, but don’t have to come up with

the big money up front.” Hoop structures are “favorable

to beginning farmers who don’t have the equity.”

Most hoop structures are used for finishing feeder

pigs. Since 1996, close to 3,000 hoop structures have

been built in Iowa, where much of the research into

alternative swine housing systems is taking place. At

Iowa State University, a team of researchers comparing

finishing pigs in hoops versus confinement systems

found that “hoop pigs” grew slower in winter and were

less efficient than the confinement pigs. In summer,

however, the opposite was true.

Yet, weight gain must be compared to costs of 

production. Overall pig production costs in hoops have

been reduced by approximately $4 per hog, according

to the nonprofit information clearinghouse, Appropriate

Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA).

Deep bedding really works as a source of heat. In the

winter, researchers have recorded bedding temperatures

in hoops to be at least 80o F.

Another big difference between hoop barns and

standard hog confinement houses is air flow. While

hoop barns are naturally ventilated, confinement 

systems have forced air systems that rely on electrical

power. If a farmer experiences a blackout, the fans 

cut out and the pigs may die from toxic gas buildup.

Most confinement systems therefore include backup

generators, which are an added expense and worry 

for producers. By contrast, Canadian researchers have

found that 94 percent of hogs raised in hoop barns

exhibited normal lung function, compared with 70 

percent of the hogs reared in confinement.

Pigs raised in hoops may develop internal parasites,

so aggressive worming is recommended. Otherwise,

pigs in hoops are reportedly quite healthy, with foot 

and leg problems greatly reduced. (See “Animal Health”

in Part II.) Hoop structures require labor to unload 

bedding, haul solid manure and check pigs.

When evaluating hoop houses:

Remember that a supply of good-quality bedding 

is a major consideration.

farm operation by establishing

a farrow-to-finish swine facility

with attached pasture.” 

They purchased 15 bred sows

the first year. Having all of the

sows farrow within five days is

ideal for the system, although

the Jungclaus’ sows farrowed

over a 10-day period. They

started their sows in temporary

nesting boxes measuring about

8 feet by 8 feet that they 

removed after a week to allow

sows and piglets to roam inside

the building. 

They provided ventilation

from intake and exhaust fans,

plenty of space (the equivalent

of about 80 square feet per 

sow and litter), and quiet surroundings – where the pigs 

can exhibit natural desires to

nest and live in family units. 

In the first year, the operation showed a small net loss,

but that took into account the

$10,682 in initial capital purchases and livestock supplies

the first year.

“Overall we had a net worth

increase of $7,213,” said Jungclaus. “Although there will be

some capital improvements

made to the system, I anticipate a profitable system based

on a capital investment loan

payment of only $2,400.”

Six years later, Jungclaus has

found that he can turn a profit

using the Swedish-style system.

In fact, he improved farm 

efficiency from 65 percent 

to 70 percent, meaning he 

now spends 65 cents per 

dollar earned, thanks to the 

more diverse farm operation. 

While Jungclaus now raises

about 400 head a year and 

markets the hogs through a

buying station, his involvement

with the new Prairie Farmers

Cooperative means he will soon 

be able to sell his pork as a

“natural” meat free of antibiotics. Jungclaus serves on the

co-op board, which is overseeing construction of a new hog

processing facility scheduled to

come on line before the end of

2001. Already, two grocery store

chains in the area have expressed

interest in the co-op’s product.

The Swedish-style system

produces a happy, healthy pig

free of antibiotics and offers

the Jungclauses a clean, healthy

working environment. Jungclaus

now farms alongside his children, who are often found 

playing with piglets.

“We felt diversifying our

farm was the first step, but

there were other family and

community oriented goals 

we considered,” he said. “We

wanted a livestock enterprise

that would allow us to work 

together as a family unit and

that would increase our family

time and give us the opportunity

to teach our children responsibility. We also wanted a community-friendly facility because

we are one mile down the 

road from town.”

Pig production costs

have been reduced by

about $4 per hog in

hoop barns, built at 

a fraction of the bill 

to erect a confinement

structure. 

– Photo by Jerry DeWitt
6

Expect higher feeding costs. During the colder

months, pigs in hoop structures may need about 10

percent more feed than their confinement counterparts to recover the energy spent keeping warm.

Make sure you have the equipment necessary for

manure loading and handling.

Develop an internal parasite control program.

Take advantage of the versatility of hoop structures,

which may be used for other livestock or storage needs.

RAISING PIGS ON PASTURE

Farrowing on pasture. In recent years, hog farmers

thought sows needed to farrow in confinement to

ensure piglet survival. However, some criticize the 

system as promoting ulcers, sores and behaviors such 

as bar biting. Instead, producers are raising sows outdoors to allow them more space and access to fresh 

air and sunshine. Researchers and farmers have found

that, with small portable huts and good pasture, they

can drastically reduce the cost of production.

Outdoor pig production on a large scale is gaining 

a hoof-hold in the southern High Plains because of the

moderate climate, relatively flat land and sparse population. In fact, the traditional cattle country of the Texas

panhandle is beginning to diversify into hogs. Texas Tech

University’s Sustainable Pork Program began studying

intensive outdoor pig production in 1993 and, in 1998,

built a research farm dedicated to exploring profitable,

environmentally sound systems they call “animal-,

environment-, worker-, and community-friendly.”

The prototype, larger than the indoor-based models,

operates within a paddock system that requires about

100 acres for every 300 sows – or three sows per acre.

The 12-acre paddocks radiate out from a central circular

area, used for handling and observation, and are demarcated by electric fence. The separate paddocks isolate

breeding, gestation, farrowing and pasture growth.

Texas Tech researchers are evaluating production

costs, behavior and environmental impacts, dust and

microbe levels, and pork quality. Thus far, they have

found improved pig health, a better work environment,

less odor, less microbial activity, fewer regulatory problems and lower start-up and operating costs. More

specifically, they found it costs $23.20 to raise a pig in

“intensive outdoor” production versus $31 in a typical

confinement system. In that 1995 study, they found a 

net profit of $10.39 per pig in the outdoor system.

The institute’s director, John McGlone, is sure sustainable pastured pork systems will take off once more 

producers learn of their environmental benefits, lower

start-up costs and marketing opportunities. “Pigs are

going to be bigger than cattle on the southern Plains,

and it could happen within the next 10 to 20 years,”

said McGlone, who has received lots of ink in newspapers and magazines in Texas and beyond for his new

production model.

A study conducted in Iowa by Mark Honeyman 

and Arlie Penner of Iowa State University compared 

economic and production data of indoor and outdoor

herds. Results showed that fixed costs for the outdoor

herds were approximately $3 less per pig weaned than

for the indoor herds. “There is much variation between

individual producers’ costs within a given system,”

Honeyman said. “A lot of producers are doing it for

other reasons,” primarily the low start-up costs and

improved quality of life. In the Midwest, pasture 

farrowing is limited to spring, summer and fall.

Large pasture farrowers have developed time-saving

systems, such as arranging huts in set patterns or creating

same-size paddocks so fencing and water lines can be

pre-measured.

The main cost in a pasture hog system is supplemental

feed, with grain accounting for 60 to 70 percent of the

cost from farrow to finish. Lately, more hog producers

are allowing their pigs to graze directly on grain crops 

to cut down on the labor and expense of harvesting row

crops. ISU researchers studying the feasibility of grazing

sows on alfalfa found similar costs for raising sows in

confinement versus grazing alfalfa in a managed fourpaddock rotational system. The grazing animals were

In a well-managed

farrow-to-finish pasture

system, producers can 

net more than $10 per

pig, according to Texas 

Tech University. 

– Photo by Jerry DeWitt
supplemented with 1.5 to 2 pounds of corn per day.

In the meantime, the alfalfa stand improved the soil.

Although an Iowa study found that outdoor farrowing produced fewer piglets per litter, the lower costs of

production makes it more profitable than confinement.

Honeyman said that fixed costs were $3.33 less per pig

weaned outdoors, 30 to 40 percent lower overall than

confinement systems. Production costs for a 250-pound

outdoor market hog were $4.88 less per pig, reflecting

feed, labor, repairs, utilities, health and fixed costs.

The environmental considerations, too, make this 

an attractive system for hog producers. While grazing

through different paddocks, the hogs evenly distribute

manure across the field. Pastures can be seeded or 

natural, and including leguminous plants like alfalfa 

in a rotation can improve nitrogen cycling and supply 

a nutritious feed for pigs. One of the biggest benefits of

raising pigs outside is giving the animals access to mud,

water and shade to cool themselves. McGlone recommends that producers design and build wallows for them.

Hog producers use a variety of wood, metal, or 

plastic huts to house their farrowing sows. Lined with

bedding – hay, corn cobs, cornstalks, straw or shredded

newspaper – the huts stay warm despite outdoor conditions. At Texas Tech, researchers use English arc-style

huts to decrease the likelihood of piglet crushing.

If farrowing hogs on pasture, keep in mind:

When choosing a farrowing hut, seek portability 

and an easy entrance and exit for the sow and litter.

Pasture systems require portable waterers and 

feeders.

Do not use floors in farrowing huts and move huts 

to fresh ground for each new litter.

Labor is more seasonal than in confinement systems,

so evaluate whether to raise one or two litters per

sow each year and time group farrowing around 

crop chores.

Most swine herds suffer from internal parasites that

may persist in soil. Develop a rigorous parasite control program as part of a whole-herd health program.

Fencing options vary, although some veterans recommend steel wire or electric fences that use rolls of

netting on fiberglass posts for greater visibility.

Thanks to the low start-up costs, pasture systems 

create an ideal way for new hog producers to get

started in the industry.

Feeding hogs with pasture. New Hampton, Iowa,

farmer Tom Frantzen grazes his gestating sows in 

permanent paddocks in the warm season. He plants

corn alongside strips of pasture, partly to provide shade

or act as a windbreak. Sows about to farrow graze on

corn, oats and clover strips. Then, as cold approaches

and the sows are ready to give birth, Frantzen moves

them into a straw-bedded cattle shed. The sows overwinter in the shed, while the piglets spend the rest of

their lives there. Each spring, Frantzen re-seeds his 30

half-acre paddocks and the system begins anew.

Jim and Adele Hayes raise poultry, cattle, pigs and

sheep on 200 acres of pasture in Warnerville, N.Y. They

believe their intensive pasture management has strengthened the operation, both by adding biological diversity

and creating marketing options. During the grazing 

season, they rotate ruminants through a series of paddocks to provide high quality forage and to allow the

pasture to re-grow before animals return to graze.

Careful attention to pasture conditions makes the

system work. “We have a ‘sacrifice’ pasture near the barn

that’s well fenced so it’s easy to maintain the animals in

there,” Adele Hayes says. “We allow that to get destroyed

if we need to,” a better option, she says, than damaging

prime pasture acreage through overgrazing.

7

Flushing

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The pasture-based

system developed 

at Texas Tech’s 

Pork Industry

Institute moves 

600 sows through

paddocks developed

for different

reproductive stages.

Breeding 

Paddock

Gestation

Paddock

Farrowing 

Paddock

7 huts/pens

Texas Tech University
8

MANURE MANAGEMENT

THE BEST TYPE OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ANY LIVESTOCK

operation converts manure into a resource rather than

creates a disposal problem. Many hog producers also

raise crops, so manure, treated correctly, offers a valuable soil amendment. Manure from a 50-sow operation

is worth about $4,000 as a fertilizer, although other 

benefits such as increasing organic matter, enhancing

soil structure and building more diverse soil organisms

make it even more valuable.

In pastured hog operations, the hogs distribute

manure themselves as they move across a field. With

proper rotations and a reasonable stocking rate, manure

does not pose a problem. Manure from hogs raised in

deep bedding mixes with the straw or other material

and becomes a solid pack that is relatively easy to 

handle. The manure-bedding mix adds another plus.

Bedding materials contain high amounts of complex

substances, such as lignin, that do not decompose

rapidly and therefore improve the soil’s organic matter

and tilth over the long term.

Roger Hubmer of Mankato, Minn., analyzes his

manure mixed with cornstalk bedding so he can knowledgeably apply it to his crop fields. Hubmer, who began

finishing hogs in hoop barns when he realized he didn’t

want to spend $100,000 on a new confinement barn,

spreads compost based on the phosphorus rating.

ODOR AND POLLUTION

One of the biggest considerations about raising hogs 

is odor generated from manure. Stories about badsmelling manure lagoons and community opposition 

to large hog confinement operations regularly appear 

in the media. Liquid manure stored in a lagoon sits in

an anaerobic state, and that creates disagreeable odors.

The smell might be unpleasant for people nearby, but

some of the gases produced – methane, hydrogen 

sulfide, carbon monoxide and ammonia – can be toxic.

If there’s a power outage in a confinement building,

pigs face very real dangers, including death, from heat

and the gases that build up in liquid anaerobic manure

systems. Many confinement hog operators equip their

buildings with alarm systems and backup generators.

Such high-tech systems come at considerable cost.

The free flow of air through a hoop structure, however,

eliminates the need for such expensive systems.

“Hog odor is the most divisive issue ever in agriculture, damaging the fabric of rural society and disenfranchising pork producers from their communities, even 

on the roads in front of their farm,” said R. Douglas Hurt,

director of Iowa State’s Center for Agriculture History 

and Rural Studies.

Outdoor systems eliminate the problem. There is 

virtually no odor at Texas Tech’s pastured pig 

demonstration site, said John McGlone, who runs 

the facility. “I told some colleagues from NRCS that 

it wouldn’t smell and they didn’t believe me,” he said.

“I had them out there in the fields a year after we

started and they couldn’t believe it. It doesn’t smell.”

Perhaps worse than odor concerns is the potential 

of swine lagoons to leak into surface water or groundwater. In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd wreaked

havoc throughout North Carolina. Particularly hard hit

opposite page, top

Marion Storm, a Bosworth,

Mo., hog producer and

member of the Patchwork

Family Farms Cooperative,

moves his 100 sows and

piglets through a series

of barns with access to

pasture. By managing 

his hogs on pasture,

Storm alleviates manure

concerns. 

– Photo courtesy of Missouri 

Rural Crisis Center

In “dry litter” systems

being promoted in 

the Pacific Islands,

farmers eliminate 

water typically used in

cleaning confinement

barns and thus, reduce

movement of nutrients

into surface and ground

water. 

– Photo by Glen Fukumoto



Environmental Benefits 

PART 2
9

was the state’s huge hog industry. Overall farm losses 

were estimated at more than $1 billion, with at least

21,000 hogs drowned or washed away in their pens.

Water pollution became a serious threat partly due 

to floodwaters carrying away manure from countless 

hog lagoons.

“Confinement poses more risks,” Honeyman said.

“If we concentrate these animals, we also concentrate

animal waste, so our risks of environmental degradation

increase.”

A solid manure system, on the other hand, doesn’t

leak or spill. The only threat to water quality is 

possible leaching from the composting bedding pack 

if it is stored outside in heavy rain. As an aerobic

process, composting, done correctly, shouldn’t 

emit objectionable odors.

“It may sound funny,” said Hubmer, the Mankato,

Minn., farmer,“but the composted manure that comes

out of the hoops is almost sweet-smelling.”

Pastured systems pose even less of a risk. At Texas

Tech, researchers installed a buffer of Old World

bluestem around the site to catch runoff from heavy

storms. It works, too, McGlone said. “You can see the

runoff isn’t leaving,” he said. “Our pastures are dark

green, while the buffer is pale green,” indicating that

nitrogen is staying on the pastures.

“If it’s done right, manure and nutrient runoff is 

not an issue.”

Producers in Hawaii are exploring a different approach to 

manure and nutrient management that employs a dry litter

technology. The system, imported from land-limited 

countries like the Netherlands,

Japan and Taiwan, could help

producers effectively manage

livestock waste, especially 

since Hawaii producers contend

with more expensive land 

and bedding costs. Moreover,

Hawaiians face truly unique

ecological issues.

“Animal manure can be

processed and developed as 

a marketable organic soil

amendment for the agricultural, garden and landscape 

industries,” reports researcher

Glen Fukumoto with the University of Hawaii Cooperative 

Extension Service. “The interest

in organic products is creating

opportunities for innovators of

nutrient management.”

Dry litter systems must be

adapted to work in the tropics

because excessive heat, disease

and parasite build-up in litter

are common. With funding from

SARE, university researchers have

worked to adapt the dry litter

system to the state. The work

began with a demonstration on

an intensive 10-acre pig farm/

orchard and market garden 

at 1,600 feet altitude. There,

the lava is thinly covered with

erodible soil that has low 

nitrogen and organic matter

content – and could benefit

from nutrient-rich compost.

The modified dry litter 

system that has evolved from

the research combines animal

manure with shredded green

residue from orchards, market

gardens and landscape operations

to produce compost. Dry litter

systems also reduce or prevent

non-point source pollution by

eliminating the use of water to

clean hog production facilities.

“Elimination of water in the

system removes the possibility

of pollution from various components of a typical confined

feeding operation waste management system,” said Fukumoto. 

The key to the system is sloping pen floors that through a pig’s

hoof action propel the litter material out of the pen and into a

holding trench. The carbon-nutrient mix flows out of the pens,

and the separate composting

trench keeps hogs from exposure

to pre-compost material, where

diseases and parasites may develop. This separation is the key

difference in the modified design.

Masazo's Pig Farm on the

southern point of the Big Island

of Hawaii has used the modified

dry litter system since 1996 to

collect and compost manure

from 30 to 40 sows. Masazo's

owners, Dane and Terri Shibuya,

constructed a modified greenhouse structure with two sets

of pens for sows in different 

reproductive stages. Their 

system, which contains no 

mechanical parts or specialized

equipment, provides cover and

protection for the animals

while collecting manure in a pit.

After mixing the manure with

carbonaceous material, they

spread the compost on bananas,

ti leaves and taro in their fields.

Cost analysis shows initial

construction at approximately

one-fourth the cost of a typical

system in Hawaii. In addition,

dry litter systems have lower

operational, maintenance, 

labor and water costs, and may

avoid potential water pollution

fines and legal costs emanating

from odor complaints.

One of the greatest benefits

is the potential for economic

return from the compost. When

the litter compost was applied

to market garden bananas in the

initial demonstration, for example, researchers measured savings

of $201 per acre.

“The modified dry litter system concepts may be adapted

to larger, temperate ecosystems

utilizing the hoop-type structures,” said Fukumoto. “The 

dynamic flow of animal and

green waste streams eliminates

composting heat in pens and 

reduces exposure to disease 

and parasites. Ultimately, the

value-added nutrients generate

either a new revenue stream 

or fertilizer savings for the 

integrated farm.”

HAWAIIAN DRY LITTER SYSTEMS – By Barb Baylor Anderson
10

SOIL

Soil improvement is a built-in benefit of alternative

swine systems. Some producers plan their grazing 

strategies not only to manage the pasture, but also to

build the soil for other commodities, such as feed grain

or cash crops. Planning a rotation with crops that both

improve soil and complement a hog operation makes

doubly good sense. Oats, for example, can provide straw

for bedding and nutritious feed for sows. Moreover, raising

pigs on pasture growing on ground that previously raised

a crop can break pest and disease cycles in the rotation.

Manure improves the organic matter content and

overall quality of the soil – whether deposited by grazing

animals or applied as compost from hoop structures.

Frantzen of New Hampton, Iowa, also raises brood

cows, alternating the livestock through the same 

paddocks. Rotating both cows and hogs through the

pastures has helped the soil, he said. “Either one of 

the livestock groups on their own would make it hard 

to manage the ground cover,” he said. “But I’ve noticed

that when they rotate through the same pasture, hogs

and cattle will eat a wider range of plants and improve

soil stability.”

ANIMAL HEALTH

Increasingly, confinement systems have been found 

to have adverse effects on hog health and well-being.

Studies from the United States and abroad report that

animals raised in confinement experience increased

aggression, higher incidence of abnormal behavior,

decreased response to external stimuli, and numerous

physical and chemical indicators of stress, such as

shoulder lesions from rubbing on crates and flooring

and diarrhea in piglets.

Toxic gases such as methane, ammonia and 

hydrogen sulfide can threaten hog health, particularly 

in older confinement facilities, or when ventilation 

systems fail. Even at lower concentrations, these gases

can lead to decreased respiratory function.

Dust in swine facilities may contain particles of 

feed, feces, dried urine, swine dander, pollen, insect

parts, mineral ash, mold and bacteria, according to 

1999 articles in the Journal of Agromedicine and the 

Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research. Those 

biological, chemical and physical components of

dust are blamed for elevated mortality and incidence 

of pneumonia, rhinitis and pleuritis, among other 

conditions reported in pig houses.

In confinement facilities, producers need efficient

ventilation systems with high airflow volume to rid the

structures of dust and gases. By contrast, hoop structures

or pasture systems do not require automated ventilation

systems. Outdoor systems may have greater incidence 

of internal parasites, however, as discussed below.

Producers can anticipate that hogs raised in deep

bedding or on pasture likely will have fewer respiratory

diseases and foot and leg problems. Most producers

using conventional systems routinely add antibiotics to

feed or water to help prevent disease or stimulate growth.

Dave Serfling of Preston, Minn., who successfully

converted an old farm building into a deep straw 

wean-to-finish facility, observed greater health benefits

for his pigs. He had pasture-farrowed hogs for 25 years,

but with help from a SARE grant, added a winter deep

straw system. What he saw impressed him – almost all 

of his pigs reached 240 pounds by six months of age

without the use of antibiotics. Moreover, pig mortality

was less than 1 percent.

“It worked so well to have mothers with their pigs

that we call our remodeled hog house a pre-wean to 

finish facility,” he said, attributing the better health 

to the combination of straw, fresh air and sunshine.

To prevent disease, experts recommend moving

entire groups of hogs. “Strict all in/all out grouping is

very beneficial to the health status and growth performance of pigs,” Honeyman said. “This works best with 

a proper facility layout where pigs are born in a narrow

time window and sows avoid cross suckling of older

and newborn pigs.”

Producers will need to take a proactive approach

with internal parasite control. The eggs of many worms

persist in soil for years. Water and feed dewormers are

effective forms of control, and Honeyman recommends

following a year-round, whole-herd life cycle health 

program that includes post-mortem exams, fecal 

samples, slaughter checks and blood tests to help 

diagnose pathogens and parasites.

A modified greenhouse

design holds particular

appeal for the Pacific

Islands, where expensive

commercial fertilizer

can be replaced with

composted hog manure.

– Photo by Jerry DeWitt
11

WHILE MEAT PRODUCERS ONCE SOLD PRODUCTS DIRECTLY

to customers, the modern feedlot-to-wholesale system

sends most meat to the grocery store case. Recently,

however, a surge of interest has renewed direct farmerto-customer meat sales. While selling meat directly offers

farmers and ranchers a chance to retain a greater profit

share, finding a reliable, small-scale processor who meets

federal and state food safety regulations may be difficult.

Meat producers will likely find few slaughterhouses

that accept small quantities. A number of innovative

pork producers are managing to bridge the gap by 

forging contracts with small slaughterhouses, pooling

hogs or taking advantage of new mobile “processors 

on wheels” funded by programs like SARE.

NICHE MARKETING

Hog producers can develop niche markets for their 

pork by emphasizing the animal welfare benefits or

environmentally friendly aspects of their systems.

A survey of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico grocery

shoppers determined that many – especially high-income

frequent pork consumers and those concerned about

growth hormones and antibiotic use – are willing to 

pay a premium.“These target consumers are very 

concerned about the production practices utilized 

by the producers,” writes Jennifer Grannis and Dawn

Thilmany of Colorado State University, who surveyed

2,200 shoppers and analyzed 1,400 responses in 1999.

“A highly visible and descriptive label that highlights

production practices must be part of the packaging.”

Research funded by the Leopold Center at Ames,

Iowa, found that consumers would pay nearly $1 more

for a package of pork chops labeled as produced 

under an environmentally friendly alternative system.

(The study defined the “most environmentally raised

pork product” as being produced in a way that results 

in 80 to 90 percent odor abatement and 40 to 50 

percent reduction in surface water pollution.) The 

study by ISU economics professor James Kliebenstein

surveyed randomly selected consumers in four diverse

market areas. Of those, 62 percent said they would 

pay a premium for pork raised with such a guarantee.

“As the industry develops methods that help 

sustain or improve the environment, a segment of 

society will support a market for such products,”

Kliebenstein said.

To gauge potential for pasture-raised pork in

Arkansas, the Arkansas Land and Farm Development

Corporation (ALFDC) worked with the University of

Arkansas, partly funded by SARE, to conduct market

research into consumer perceptions and preferences.

Almost 70 percent of respondents to a 1998 questionnaire sent to 1,200 consumers and 42 supermarkets and

restaurants in the Delta region indicated a preference

for “environmentally friendly” pork products over conventional. More than 73 percent identified pasture-raised

pork as natural and healthy, and 65 percent of retailers

preferred to sell local, organically grown meat if available

at premium prices.

After perfecting his rotational grazing system,

LaGrange, Ind., hog producer Greg Gunthorp turned to

marketing. “I spend more time marketing than I do 

farming,” he said.

Meeting and getting to know the chefs at the best

restaurants in Chicago is a major focus, and Gunthorp

travels more than 100 miles to the city at least once a

week to talk with them in their kitchens. Once the chefs

have tasted his product, Gunthorp has little trouble getting

orders. He also sells pork at a popular Chicago farmers

market, where he simultaneously promotes his burgeoning catering business, which has ranged from wedding

receptions to company picnics to family barbecues.

It costs Gunthorp an average of 30 cents per pound

to raise a hog to maturity. The lowest price he now gets

for his pork is $2 per pound, although he commands as

much as $7 per pound for suckling pigs – which weigh in

at 25 pounds or less. Overall, Gunthorp’s prices average

10 times what hogs fetch on the commodities market.

The bottom line for Gunthorp is making enough

money to keep his family healthy and happy. “We can

get by just selling 1,000 pigs a year, and the smarter I can

raise them and sell them, the better off we’ll be,” he said.

Direct marketing drives the Hayes’ operation in Warnerville, N.Y. Sap Bush Hollow Farm markets a variety of

meat directly to about 400 consumers in New York,

Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. They sell a 

lot of poultry and beef and about 40 pigs each year.

They sell in bulk and as retail cuts – to restaurants,

stores and directly from their home – to eliminate 

distribution costs. Adele Hayes uses newsletters, postcards and even phone calls to inform customers of 

sale days and products available.

“The demand is

incredible for

field-raised, 

naturally raised

pork. The taste,

according to 

us and our 

customers, is far

superior, as well

as the texture.”

– Adele Hayes

Warnerville, N.Y.

Marketing Options for Pork

PART 3
“The demand is incredible for field-raised, naturally

raised pork,” she said. “The taste, according to us and

our customers, is far superior, as well as the texture.”

In the New England climate, the Hayeses send the

pigs outside to graze throughout the summer, then keep

them in a barn equipped with deep bedding during the

cold months.

Even when it’s cold, the pigs get access to the outdoors and help advance the Hayes’ composting process

by rooting through vegetative material.

The couple uses two federally inspected slaughterhouses, although, for the Hayeses, like many other small

meat producers in the Northeast, the decreasing number of slaughterhouses remains challenging.“Our biggest

problem continues to be reliable slaughter and processing in a timely fashion for our customers,” Hayes said.

COOPERATIVE MARKETING

Given the consolidation climate in the hog industry and

the low profit margins for pork, cooperating with other

producers to market meat offers a profitable alternative

for small and medium-sized farmers.

Patchwork Family Farms, a marketing cooperative

supported by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, rewards

15 pork producers for their dedication to “sustainable”

and “humane” growing standards with a fair price,

regardless of the market. The market for this Missouri

pork is hot. The co-op has seen a doubling in sales 

volume each year since it was founded in 1994. In 2000,

Patchwork earned $250,000 in gross sales.

Patchwork’s expansion has been steady. Originally,

the co-op sold to three restaurants. Today, it sells pork to

about 40 restaurants, grocery stores, at community events

and directly from the co-op’s Columbia office. “It has

taken a lot of knocking on doors,” said Lindsay Howerton, Patchwork marketing coordinator.“We have tremendous success with the media. I’ll send out a press release

and suddenly I’ll have three TV stations in our yard.”

Howerton attributes the intense interest to the coop’s unique pricing structure – 43 cents per pound or 

15 percent over market price – and dedication to raising

pork not in confinement, without hormones and without continuous feeding of antibiotics. “We’ve stepped

out of the system,” Howerton said,“and are being

extremely successful at it.”

In 2000, Patchwork producers received $50,000 more

than if they had sold their hogs on the open market. Producers saw these payments up front, not after the product

was sold. Ovid and Mary Jo Lyon, Patchwork producers

for several years, have seen the economic benefits.

“Patchwork supports independent family farmers; we

just couldn’t continue to raise hogs without this project,”

said Mary Jo Lyon. “Patchwork gives my family a way to

produce hogs in the same way we always have, out in

the open with plenty of sunshine, and we get a fair price

for our hogs.”

Other hog producers in Missouri may have an opportunity to tap niche markets, thanks to A Family Farm Pork

Cooperative, which has researched consumer support

for the concept. What began as a small project blossomed

to serve producers in 20 counties with a pork slaughtering plant and a cooperative marketing plan, initially in

the St. Louis area.

Feasibility studies for value-added pork,“have shown

this will be a good venture,” said Russell Kremer, president

of the Missouri Farmers Union and co-op director, who

received a SARE grant to explore alternative ways to

distribute Missouri-grown food. Producers interested in the

slaughtering plant have offered some 250,000 hogs per year.

“A common strategy to gain and maintain better

access to slaughter markets was pooling several different producers’ hogs in a single load and providing 

such loads on a regular basis,” Kremer said. The co-op

serves small- and medium-sized producers who combine

12

Pennsylvania hog

producer Barbara

Wiand, who received 

a SARE grant to explore

new ways to market

pork, graced the cover

of Successful Farming

magazine as one of 10

“positive thinkers.”

– Photo courtesy of 

Successful Farming
13

genetics, nutrition and other management strategies to

meet quality standards.“If you want a cooperative venture

like this to be successful, producers have to communicate from the very beginning,” he said.

With start-up help from a SARE grant, a farmer-owned

meat marketing cooperative is netting top dollar for 

its products and providing its 52-member farms with

crucial income. Vermont Quality Meats now sells more

than $1,000 a day worth of New England lamb, goat

meat, pork, veal, venison and game birds – most of it 

to upscale New York and Boston restaurants at double 

regular auction sale prices. The cooperative has put

between $100,000 and $150,000 extra profit into the

pockets of producers, estimates diversified livestock

farmer Lydia Ratcliff.

Cooperative members benefit from both lower production costs and higher sales prices by meeting market

demand for significantly younger animals. About 10

part-time jobs have been created through the project,

all of which are filled by co-op members, further supplementing farm income. “Our farmers are also getting the

reward of knowing they’re producing such fine products

that their efforts are being recognized by some of the

most distinguished chefs in the country,” Ratcliff said.

Minnesota crop and livestock farmer Carmen Fernholz

sells hogs on the conventional market through a buying

station that he operates about 10 miles from his family

farm. To obtain advance contracts, most producers need

to supply 40,000 pounds of carcass, or 225 head, which

can carve small producers out of the market.

By pooling their product, the hog producers with

whom Fernholz works are able to secure their market

price in advance. Between 1997 and 2000, the station

served up to 50 farmers in a 30-mile radius. Under the

arrangement, farmers let Fernholz know how many

head they have to sell. Fernholz then coordinates truck 

transportation and works with a National Farmers Organization office in Ames, Iowa, to secure a buyer. Farmers

bring about 50 to 100 hogs to the buying station for shipping each week.

“We were losing market access, and that was critical,”

Fernholz says. “If a group of us can each contribute 20

to 25 head toward a forward contract then we can all

price-protect ourselves.”

TASTE

Pork produced from pigs raised on deep bedding proved

tastier than pork from confinement animals, a study at

PORK FROM THE PORCH – by Barb Baylor Anderson

Barbara Wiand, of Mifflinburg,

Penn., retails her farm’s pork

product from her back door,

offering her an outlet for

value-added pork and the opportunity to work from home

with her young children close

by. After their slaughter plant

closed, she organized area pork

producers to begin shipping hogs

together to another plant, this

one 175 miles away. That way,

they could meet quota numbers and defray trucking costs.

She and her husband, Glenn,

who were both raised on farms,

live in a historic house they call

the Olde Stonehouse Farm on

240 acres in central Pennsylvania. They raise 300 sows in a

confinement crate system; each

sow produces 2 1

/2 litters per

year. In groups of 20 to 25, their

piglets remain in pens through

finishing. 

Previously, they sold pork

under a contract, but fearing 

low hog prices and the changing structure of the hog industry would negatively affect

their operation, Wiand began

looking for ways to cover the

risk. Beyond producing 7,000

market hogs per year, Wiand

wanted a more rewarding 

outlet for pork. She began to

research a marketing plan for

value-added pork products,

then used a SARE grant to 

put the plan into place.

“I felt value-added pork

would increase farm income,

allow us to maintain the same

number of animals, improve

the quality of life and continue

to be active in production agriculture,” she said.

Wiand did research into all

angles of the plan and set the

basic framework for the business. “It took nearly two years

to develop the products, labels

and retail site,” she says. “It

takes a lot of work to determine where to slaughter and

package the meat and label 

and market it.” 

She obtained a Pennsylvania

Department of Agriculture 

certificate to sell meat as a retailer from her home and also

participates in area farmers

markets. A local USDA-certified

packer processes the meat,

which Wiand stamps with her

own “Olde Stonehouse Farm”

label featuring a picture of the

1811 house. She has labels for 

12 different products – smoked

country bacon, Canadian bacon, boneless ham and specialty sausages among them –

along with a generic label that

can be used on fresh pork and

even ultimately beef or lamb, 

if her business expands. 

Wiand’s retail shop, which 

is open Thursday-Saturday, 

is registered with the state 

department of agriculture. 

She currently slaughters one 

or two hogs per week for her

local customers.

“Inventory management is

challenging,” she said. “It can

be difficult to sell all of the

cuts from every hog every

week.” Wiand works with 

federal prison procurement 

officials to move pork at cost

and is exploring opportunities 

to donate excess product to 

community shelters and 

nursing homes.

Reaching into the community and being able to help 

her family is the greatest 

reward of the business, Wiand

said. “I get to be with my kids

and it feels good to be able to

offer top-quality pork products

to people. I am leaving my 

options open to grow the 

retail business or even explore

ways to supply one or more

major grocery chains in our

area. Every step requires finding

the right people to work with

and convincing people your

business is legitimate.”
Texas Tech University found. They compared pork loins

from a large swine operation that raises pigs on slatted

floors versus 20 pork loins in a deep-bedding system,

measuring responses from a trained sensory panel.

Results, published as an abstract in the Journal of 

Animal Science, indicated that pigs housed on bedding

produced pork that was juicier and better tasting.

Moreover, carcasses from the deep-bedded group had 

a lower trim loss – 5.8 percent compared to 14.9 percent

for the group raised on slats.

“Historically, consumers’ desires have been fairly 

simple – to have cheap but wholesome food,” said John

McGlone, head of Texas Tech’s Pork Industry Institute.

“Now a large segment of consumers is demanding new

requirements from the meat they buy.”

ORGANIC PORK

Raising pork organically – and marketing it that way –

presents another profitable niche. In 2000, USDA

announced the final standards for organically grown

agricultural products, including practices that can be

used in producing and handling organic livestock.

Organic meats appear to be part of a growing niche

market. While organic food makes up a small share of

retail sales, it is growing by about 24 percent a year. The

Food Marketing Institute, an organization representing

food retailers and wholesalers, found that 37 percent

of consumers look for and purchase products labeled

as organic.

All agricultural products labeled “organic” must originate from farms or handling operations certified by a

state or private agency accredited by USDA. Farms and

handling operations that sell less than $5,000 of organic

products per year are exempt from certification. Animals

for slaughter must be raised under organic management

from the last third of gestation. Producers are required

to use certified organic feed, but they may provide vitamin and mineral supplements.

Organically raised animals must not be given hormones

or antibiotics. If an animal is sick or injured, producers

must not withhold treatment, even if that means administering antibiotics and selling the meat on the conventional market. All organically raised animals must have

access to the outdoors, and be confined only for health,

safety or stage of production reasons, or to protect soil

or water quality.

For more information about organic pork production,

see “Resources” p. 16.

14

WORKING CONDITIONS

LABOR, A HUGE FACTOR IN THE LIFE OF ANY FARMER, TAKES ON 

a new perspective in hog operations. Toxic gases and

associated offensive odors from manure produced as

part of a confined system remain a major concern,

while producers trying alternative housing systems

report few or no problems.

“There’s no comparison,” said Mark Moulton, a Rush

City, Minn., swine producer who uses a deep straw system. In a hoop barn,“there’s no runoff, there are no

lagoons and no gases. The smell doesn’t compare.”

When Moulton’s neighbors saw him building hoop

barns, they were concerned about pungent odors wafting

across their fields. Over the past few years, however,

they have found their fears groundless. Moulton invited

them and others to a picnic 10 feet from his hoop house.

“You couldn’t smell a thing,” he said.

For producers, working with animals directly can be

more rewarding than shoveling grain to pigs in crates.

The systems require more attention and pig handling,

which many producers relish.

“It’s relatively easy, the pigs will teach you how to 

do it,” Honeyman said,“and it can be rewarding if you

like working with animals.” Hogs, which Honeyman 

said may be smarter than dogs, are fun to work with.

Alternative swine production systems are for people

“who like managing animals rather than equipment

and machinery,” he continued. “One reason people

raise animals is because they want contact with them.

In confinement, we’ve automated ourselves into managers of the system rather than working animals.”

Dwight Ault, who has raised hogs for more than 

four decades, genuinely enjoys working with pigs.

Once he switched to winter farrowing in a deep-straw

system, he found he could hone his husbandry skills.

“It’s wonderfully productive,” he said of the system.

“It gives me more time with the hogs and a chance 

to observe.”

Community, Family and Lifestyle Benefits

PART 4
15

HEALTH

Research has turned up potentially troubling information about the health of workers in confinement systems.

David Schwartz, a University of Iowa pulmonary specialist, and other researchers found that workers were

prone to upper respiratory disorders from lungs

inflamed from exposure to grain dust, airborne particles

of fecal matter, and other debris and gases such as

ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and carbon

monoxide from hog manure in confinement barns.

Workers in confinement buildings have greater 

incidence of acute respiratory illness – with symptoms

such as coughing, sore throats, runny noses, burning 

or watering of eyes, shortness of breath and wheezing,

chronic bronchitis, and inflammation, wrote Kelly 

Donham of the Iowa Center for Agricultural Safety 

and Health in the Journal of Agromedicine. Others have

reported reduced lung function.

The dust and gases blamed for such ailments are

much less prevalent, or nonexistent, in alternatives such

as hoop structures or pasture systems. Moreover, alternative system producers do not administer antibiotics for

disease prevention. Administering antibiotics to livestock

has been blamed for lowering the effectiveness of those

medicines for the treatment of human health problems

because indiscriminate use encourages the evolution 

of new strains of bacteria immune to drugs.

FAMILY AND COMMUNITY BENEFITS

Alternative hog production systems provide excellent

opportunities for producers to work with other family

members and develop relationships with other workers.

In some cases, children can check and bed huts, while

older children can help with fencing, feeding, watering

and bedding. An alternative system also allows family

members to work as a team in moving pigs, setting up

pastures, placing huts and shelters, laying water lines and

feeders and rounding up pigs for weaning or treatments.

Vic Madsen of Audobon, Iowa, who uses hoop

houses in his hog production system, told participants

at an annual Iowa swine systems conference in 1999,

that alternative systems meet the “fun test” in helping

producers do a better job.

“This winter, my 15-year-old son helped me put cornstalk bedding in a hoop with finishing hogs,”Madsen said.

“When we were done, he started laughing out loud.

One of the pigs had picked up a corncob, had it sideways in his mouth like a big old cigar, and was literally

prancing around the building. That pig made chores 

fun for my son.”

Dwight Ault finds raising pigs on pasture enjoyable

as well as profitable and environmentally sound.

“It is a real treat for me and the sows when they are

taken to pasture,” he said. “It is good for mental outlook,

a kind of therapy that farmers need. To me, it is a joy

when you watch sows munching green legumes and

grass after a winter of dry feed.”

Small, independent producers also can stimulate

local economies. Independent producers use local 

veterinarians, farm supply stores and feed companies,

and pay local truckers to transport their animals. Other

businesses may receive indirect support from additional 

dollars circulating in the local economy.

Profits from an independent producer can multiply

three or four times in a community, said University 

of Missouri rural sociologist William Heffernan. Profits

from a corporate or private company-owned farm leave

the community almost immediately.

Patchwork Family Farms in Columbia, Mo., brings different segments of society together that are connected by 

an interest in quality meat or pork raised by independent 

producers. The co-op, which sells pork from its retail outlet, collects about $3,000 in four hours on sales days. With

prices competitive with conventionally raised pork, the coop is able to serve both low-income and affluent residents.

“You’ll see a homeless shelter resident, a doctor in a

suit and a university professor, and they’re all standing

in line talking,” said Lindsay Howerton, the co-op’s marketing coordinator. “We know this is something special,

because usually these people wouldn’t interact. They’re

all talking about where their food comes from.”

Greg Gunthorp’s prices

average 10 times what

hogs fetch on the

commodities market,

although the bottom 

line for Gunthorp is

making enough money

to keep his family

healthy and happy.

– Photo by Kathy Dutro, 

Indiana Farm Bureau
GENERAL

INFORMATION

Sustainable Agriculture 

Research and Education

(SARE) program USDA, 

10300 Baltimore Avenue 

BARC West, Bldg. 046, 

Beltsville, MD 20705; 

san@sare.org;

www.sare.org

SARE studies and spreads information about sustainable

agriculture via a nationwide

grants program. See specific

research findings at

www.sare.org/projects/

Appropriate Technology

Transfer for Rural Areas

(ATTRA) P.O. Box 3657,

Fayetteville, AR 72702; 

(800) 346-9140; 

http://attra.ncat.org/

Provides assistance and 

resources free of charge 

to farmers and other ag 

professionals.

Alternative Farming 

Systems Information 

Center (AFSIC) USDA 

National Agricultural 

Library, Rm 132, Beltsville,

MD 20705; (301) 504-6559; 

afsic@nal.usda.gov;

www.nal.usda.gov/afsic

Provides on-line information

resources, referrals and database searching. 

Iowa State University/

Mark Honeyman Honeyman has written many 

articles on sustainable hog

production and is doing 

research on hoop shelters

and Swedish deep-bedded

group nursing systems. For

alternative swine production

systems information and research results: 

B1 Curtiss Hall, Iowa State

University, Ames, IA 50011

(515) 294-4621; 

honeyman@iastate.edu

Minnesota Institute for

Sustainable Agriculture

(MISA) Alternative Swine

Production Systems Program,

385 Animal Science/Vet

Med, 1988 Fitch Ave., University of Minnesota, St. Paul, 

MN 55108; (877) ALT-HOGS;

(612) 625-6224;

marti067@tc.umn.edu

www.misa.umn.edu/programs

/altswine/swineprogram.html

Texas Tech University Pork

Industry Institute For a free

sustainable outdoor pork

production information

package, (806) 742-2826 or 

www.pii.ttu.edu

PUBLICATIONS

A Gentler Way: Sows on

Pasture Inspirational testimonials from Minnesota and

Iowa hog farmers. 

Free from Alison Fish 

Minnesota Department of

Agrigculture; (651) 296-7686.

alison.fish@state.mn.us

An Agriculture that Makes

Sense: Making Money on

Hogs Describes and analyzes a 50-sow sustainable

hog enterprise in Minnesota.

$4 to Land Stewardship Project, 2200 4th Street, White

Bear Lake, MN 55110;

(651) 653-0618; www.

landstewardshipproject.org/

resources-pubs.html #hogs

Graze A monthly magazine

offering production information on dairy, beef, sheep,

hogs and poultry. $30 for

one year (10 issues). To 

subscribe or for free sample,

contact: Graze, P.O. Box 48,

Belleville, WI 53508;

(608) 455-3311;

graze@mhtc.net;

www.grazeonline.com/

Hogs Your Way Options for

keeping all sizes of hog production systems profitable

and environmentally friendly. 

Includes profiles of hog

farmers successfully using

Swedish deep-straw 

farrowing systems, pasture

farrowing and hoop house

finishing. $5 plus s/h to

Minnesota Extension Service

Distribution Ctr, Item #07641; 

(800) 876-8636; 

www.extension.umn.edu/units/

dc/ abstract.html? item=07641

The New American Farmer

A collection of in-depth interviews with farmers and

ranchers across America, 

including profiles about 

diversified hog farmers. $10

to Sustainable Agriculture

Publications, 210 Hills Bldg.,

UVM, Burlington, VT 05405-

0082; (802) 656-0484; 

sanpubs@uvm.edu;

www.sare.org/newfarmer

Swine Breeding, Gestating

& Housing Series. MidWest

Plan Service, (800) 562-3618; 

www.mwpshq.org/catalog.

html, click on “Livestock”

Swine Source Book: Alternatives for Pork Producers

A collection of research and

demonstration articles that

focus on hoop structures,

Swedish deep bedding, pasture systems, low antibiotics

and marketing. $30 plus s/h

from Minnesota Extension

Service Distribution Ctr,

Item# 07289; 

(800) 876-8636; www.

extension.umn.edu/units/dc/

abstract.html?item=07289 

The Stockman Grass

Farmer This monthly magazine is devoted to the art

and science of turning grass

into cash flow. $32/year. To

subscribe or for free sample,

contact: The Stockman Grass

Farmer, P.O. Box 2300,

Ridgeland, MS 39158;

(800) 748-9808; 

www.stockmangrassfarmer.com

WEB SITES, LISTSERVS

AND E-PUBS

Swine-L Hosted by the 

University of Minnesota and

maintained by the staff of

Swine Health and Production, a journal published by

the American Association of

Swine Veterinarians.

www.aasp.org/swine-l.html

Appropriate Technology

Transfer for Rural Areas

(ATTRA) On-line hog

information ; 

Alternative Marketing of

Pork www.attra.org/

attra-pub/altpork.html

Hooped Shelters for Hogs

www.attra.org/attra-pub/

hooped.html

Organic Matters: Considerations in Organic Hog 

Production

http://attra.ncat.org/

attra-pub/PDF/omhog.pdf

Sustainable Hog 

Production Overview

www.attra.org/attrapub/Hogs.html

American Farmland Trust

Grazing Links http://

grassfarmer.com/glink.htm

Hoop Structures for Swine

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. 

www.abe.iastate.

edu/hoop_structures/

Missouri Alternatives 

Center http://agebb.

missouri.edu/mac/links/

index.htm

Pigs on Pasture – 

The Gunthorp Farm

http://grassfarmer.com/

pigs/gunthorp.html;

www.sare.org/newfarmer/

gunthorp.htm

Swine Facilities for 

Production on Pasture

Oklahoma State University

Cooperative Extension 

Service Swine Publications,

www.ansi.okstate.edu/

exten/swine/F-3676.PDF

Top Ten Reasons for Rural

Communities to be Concerned about Large-Scale,

Corporate Hog Operations

By John Ikerd, Univ of 

Missouri Agricultural 

Economist.

http://ssu.agri.missouri.edu/

faculty/jikerd/papers/

TOP10.html

USDA National 

Organic Program

Richard Mathews 

(202) 720-3252 

richard.mathews@usda.gov

SARE works in partnership with Cooperative Extension and Experiment 

Stations at land grant universities to deliver practical information to 

the agricultural community. Contact your local Extension office for more

information.

This bulletin was based in part on "Hogs Your Way," produced by the 

University of Minnesota Extension Service, the Minnesota Institute for 

Sustainable Agriculture and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and

"Sustainable Hog Production Overview” by the Appropriate Technology

Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA). This publication was funded by USDACSREES under Cooperative Agreement 00-ESAG-1-0857.

– Photo by Prescott Bergh, courtesy of Minnesota Department of Agriculture

Alternative Swine System Resources