Livestock Production in Your County
Jerry Weiss, Field Specialist-Swine, Northwest
Situation: Our workshop goals were to provide:
- Economic impact data for various types of livestock production operations.
- Tools and resources available to local officials to help scientifically predict and measure environmental impacts of livestock operations.
- Information on what is being done locally else where in Iowa to attempt to regulate the location of new livestock production facilities.
- Information on environmentally friendly livestock production practices.
- Opportunities to visit with Iowa State University researchers who have been and are currently engaged in studying livestock production issues.
- The target audience:
- County Supervisors
- Local Economic Development Staff
- Other County Staff (zoning officers, sanitation, county health workers, etc.)
- Area Legislators
- City Council Members & Board of Adjustment Members
- Extension Council Members
Programmatic Response:
- Three workshop were held: Spencer, Humboldt, Sac City
- Elected officials were invited by personal invitation from a 12 county area. 78 elected officials attended
- Speakers and Topics
- Dr. John Mabry Local Economic Impact of 2,400 Pig Grower Finisher Farm
- Dr. John Lawrence Weighing the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Cattle Feeding in your County
- Dr. Chris Mondak The Value of a Dairy Operation in your County.
- Dr. Steve Hoff Proper Siting of a Livestock Facility Dr. Kris Kohl Working with the Producer on a Livestock Facility
Impact:
- Audience received science base information on livestock production and environmental issues.
- The surveys showed that the elected officials were very pleased to had first hand information of Dr. Hoffs site assessment model and how they could make scientific decisions from this information.
- More than 70 assessments have been made from over 100 contacts to date.
- Currently legislation is pending on the use of this model in conjunction with the Matrix.
- Opened the lines of communication between scientific staff and elected officials also allowed good feed back from elected officials.
- Introduced new livestock density concept from both Dr. Mabry and Dr. Lawrence that officials had not studied before.
- One Pocahontas County Supervisor commented that it was the best and most usable training he had ever received as related to his position as supervisor.
- This will be an on-going effort.
April 2007
150 Iowa Pork Industry Center
Page last updated:
April 11, 2007
Page maintained by Linda Schultz, lschultz@iastate.edu
