So today was a piece meal sort of day. Since it had been raining and the fields were wet we had to change our plans a little bit, but it was still a fantastic day in Iowa. We started out our day with visiting the Friests’ pig operation. Now they have a unique operation because most of the hog farming in Iowa is done by a few cooperations that contract with farmers, but the Friests are totally independent. We started off our tour with the feed. Brent walked us through the way that they make the different feeds for the pigs, and each of the major ingredients that go into it. Brent then took us into the first hog barn. The first one was were they kept the breeding sows, and where his helping hand kept his show pigs. We next went over the the farrowing barn. In here we saw the piglets with their mothers, and also the pigs right after they had been weaned from their mothers. We got to hold the baby piglets, and Brent talked about the different procedures they perform before they separate the mothers from the piglets. We then made our way into the next room in that barn where the just weaned pigs were held while they got big enough to move to the final finishing areas. In the last barn we saw the pigs that were going to be sent to market soon. After seeing all the barns, Brent explained more the process of raising the pigs, and told us that it usually takes about 6 months from when the pigs are born till the get sent to market.

Later in the afternoon we went over to a horse farm that was run Jada Neubauer, who is married to HN’s nephew. She runs a horse barn, and houses other peoples horses along with her own. She trains her horses to pull carts, and her whole family competes in different levels, but the horses she houses compete in a multitude of different events. We were able to join her for the afternoon chores which included feeding, bringing in and putting out, and refilling their water. It was a great time because the horses were beautiful and very well trained. I personally got to bring in a horse named Jedi, who stood as tall as my shoulder. I tried to fit him in the van, but unfortunately he was too big to fit in. After a few failed attempts to kidnap some horses and petting all the barn cats we could find we left to get back for our evening presentation.

Tonight we had Denny Friests give us a presentation about sustainability, and how conventional agriculture tires to achieve a balance between production and substantiality. He talked with us about his practices, and his use of precision ag to make his farm sustainable. His main take away point was that the new technology allowed farmers to only apply the bare minimum amount of chemicals needed to grow their crops, and the new tech allowed them to have less of an impact on the environment. He also brought along Sam Stegma, and she talked to us about what different coops do to help make more farms sustainable. She told us about the different services that they use to help farmers determine the best seeds for their land, and when and how much chemicals to apply on the crop. Next we had Brian Perry from Land O’Lakes’ Sustain program which promotes sustainable corporate responsible (yep, this is the same company that sells butter). He talked to us more in-depth about the software that Denny uses, and how it is helping farmers meet the requirements of new farm regulations. Finally we had Ben Gleason from the Soil Health Partnership at the Iowa Corn Growers Association. He talked with us about soil health, and how modern conventional farming techniques are helping to improve soil health, which in turns helps improve crop yields.