Hot Day In Iowa

Today was hot. Today was really hot. I started the morning out at the Friest Farm about a mile down the road. After spending most of the day with cattle yesterday, touring the hog operation at the Friest’s house was very interesting. Personally, although I have nothing against pigs or pig operations, I would much rather prefer to be around cattle and cattle operations. There’s just something completely distinct about hog manure in comparison to cow manure, and I don’t like it that much. I’ve always known how important manure is as a fertilizer—my grandpa taught me this from a very early age when I would help him out in his garden. However, I was never aware how profitable manure really is. It’s a common expression that manure is the “smell of money” in Iowa. Why is this? Iowa has become famous in recent years for their CAFOs, or confined animal feeding operations. These CAFOs produce massive amount of manure, which is then placed upon the fields as a fertilizer. This manure helps lower the inputs on a corn crop by providing the essential nitrogen and other nutrients that are needed for massive production of corn. Easterners and city slickers such as myself don’t understand this fact. How can someone make money off poop? The poop cycle is extremely interesting as well. It starts with the pigs (or cattle), then is excavated and spread on the fields, which in turn grow the crops, which end up either back in the hogs (or cattle) or in the food or drinks we consume. Scott Neubauer has gone as far as to purchase a hog barn owned by Iowa Select for the sole purpose of using the manure to fertilize his fields. He runs a CAFO, which is essentially a finishing operation for hogs. Although he makes money off of his pigs, he’s more concerned with what comes out the other end. So, poop is of vital importance in Iowa. Denny Friest asserted this point with passion as I was riding around in his planter this afternoon. While riding in his tractor, I got to experience the precision agriculture Mr. Kevin Butt talked about so much at Ellsworth. Denny, who is really a pioneer in the technological agriculture industry, does things much differently than other family farms. His GPS systems in his tractors quite literally cost a fortune, and today I saw why. Whilst riding in Denny’s tractor planting GMO feed corn, we discussed many things. However, after riding around in Denny’s tractor I started to realize why environmentalists could believe that this new form of agriculture is so dangerous to the environment. In my three-hour tractor ride, we probably used at least a hundred gallons of gasoline, and planted thousands of plants treated with genetically modified traits. However, I believe Mr. Friest would respond to these environmentalist issues by stating that he is just trying to make a living; that he is giving the world what they want. Here in Iowa, people and companies want corn and soybeans! Mr. Friest does a lot of farmer representation, as he has headed or currently heads up various committees that have influence in farm policy. He is completely an agribusiness representative; and one who represents perfectly the environment he lives in.