Lawmakers see major pork facility up close

WASHINGTON, Iowa - Pork producer Rob Brenneman makes no apologies for the farrowing crates and antibiotics that help his company raise 650,000 hogs a year in and around Washington County.

'Not everyone is going to like this, but we went to farrowing crates to protect the sows,” said Brenneman, who explained his operation Tuesday to about a dozen legislators who took a tour.

When kept together in pens, sows fight, Brenneman said. 'It's normal pig behavior to establish a pecking order, and when they weigh more than 500 pounds, they hurt each other,” he said.

As for antibiotics, which he said he uses sparingly, 'It is absolutely wrong not to treat sick animals. We are not going to compromise animal welfare to have antibiotic-free livestock.”

Consulting veterinarian Tim Loula of St. Peter, Minn., said swine raised in antibiotic-free environments often go to market 'sick and coughing.” But they must be free of antibiotics before they go to market, he said.

'It's a safe, clean and efficient way to raise hogs,” said Sen. Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford, a farmer who arranged the tour to help legislators better understand pork production, an industry in which Iowa leads the nation.

'It's an impressive operation,” said Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, who was making his first visit to a hog confinement facility. 'It has clear benefits for keeping animals safe and healthy.”

'There are good operators and bad operators. This guy has a lot of integrity and does it right,” said Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville.

Sen. Dan Zumbach, R-Monticello, a farmer, said he was impressed with Brenneman's willingness to explain and show people how they raise livestock.

'We like to tell our story. There is a huge disconnect between what we do and what people think we do. We believe in what we do and believe we are doing it right,” Brenneman said.

When Brenneman and his wife, Char, started raising hogs in 1980, 'every sow got a shot and had antibiotics in her feed,” he said.

The Brennemans eliminate much of the need for antibiotics with high-tech sow buildings that include filtration units that remove mycoplasma, a common cause of respiratory ailments, and other pathogens from the air, Loula said.

Starting with mycoplasma-free piglets reduces the need for antibiotics during the growth cycle, Loula said.

Each of their four sow units crank out 5,000 piglets a week, and each of those piglets is hand-dried after birth, said farrowing specialist Erin Brenneman, one of many family members with key roles in Brenneman Pork.

Such care enables Brenneman Pork to market 96 percent of the pigs they put on feed, said Rob Brenneman, who cited statistics that help put their operation into perspective.

Their sows produce an average of 32 piglets a year, and their pigs gain an average of 2 pounds a day, he said. The 650,000 pigs they market each year provide 60 pounds of pork per year for 2.3 million people.

They operate their own feed mill, which produces between 800 and 1,000 tons of feed a day. They employ 17 truck drivers. Each year their hogs produce 127 million gallons of manure, which fertilizes 36,000 acres of row crops and has a value equivalent to $6 million in commercial fertilizer.

Though they have had some close calls, Brenneman said they have never experienced a major spill in which manure polluted a stream.

In addition to the corn they raise on their own 3,500 acres, the Brennemans buy 4 million bushels of corn and 31,000 tons of dried distiller grains, a byproduct of ethanol production. They have 108 full-time employees and annual expenses exceeding $84 million. The company pays $12.5 million in barn rent each year to 45 contract growers, most of them in Washington and nearby.

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