Iowa Select Farms Takes Initiative to Do What’s Right

06-01-2018 in Green Farmstead Partner

By Megyn Walston, CSIF Communications Intern

Iowa Select Farms (ISF) has partnered with the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers (CSIF) and the Green Farmstead Partner program to reduce odors around their buildings and improve neighbor relations. ISF hosted an open house on May 24, 2018, at a new wean-to-finish facility in Williams, Iowa. Community members, industry representatives, and local farmers attended the event to learn about the new facility, including the windbreaks being installed, and a new electro-static fence that will be used in addition to the trees to help reduce odor.

The trees selected for this site were arborvitae techny with an additional row of dogwood shrubs along the west side of the building. Frazier Nursery of Vinton, Iowa provided the trees and shrubs used on the site and spoke with visitors at the open house about the factors that need to be considered for each site when selecting a species. Arborvitae techny was chosen for this site due to space limitations, longevity, and hardiness. Dogwood shrubs were added along the west side of the building for their hardiness and to add an extra layer of protection for the trees. “If you have a Picasso, you want to put a nice frame around it. So, if you have a nice hog building, you’re going to want to put trees around it to frame the Picasso,” says John Frazier of Frazier Nursery.

Iowa Select Farms has committed to planting trees around a minimum of 90 sites over the next three years. Noel Williams, Iowa Select Farms chief operating officer, spoke at the event. “These things are not required by state law, they’re not regulated by the federal government and as much as I would like them to, as a production guy, help the environment in the barn or help the pigs grow better, they don’t. But they do help us be good neighbors and responsible members of our rural communities and state, and we at Iowa Select are proud to do things that are right and to do things the right way.”

“Whether it’s a new barn, an existing farm or refurbishing existing growth, we are here to help you do that,” says Brian Waddingham, Executive Director of the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers. If you are interested in learning how trees and shrubs can benefit your unique livestock production, contact the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers at info@supportfarmers.com or at 1-800-932-2436.

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