We woke up early and headed to Mr. Friest’s farm where four engaged in AIing sows and two rode in a tractor with Mr. Friest’s son. Before AIing sows we were treated to a tour of the Friest’s hog operation, beginning with the nursing unit. It was extremely similar to the Liljedahl operation, however, we saw evidence that the nursing crate for the sow can only work so well at preventing piglets from being crushed. We then fed some sows in another unit before being taken to the main event. To AI a sow, without being too graphic, you insert a tube and then begin an IV drip essentially. It is a fairly simple procedure, complicated only by involving the hog, which was not a problem the way we were shown. After our visit at the Friest farm we quickly turned around and headed to Iowa City to meet with professors and the Honorable Mary Mascher (D-Iowa City), a member of the Iowa House of Representatives.

We had a complication with our first meeting which was rescheduled for the following day. Thus, our first meeting was with Connie Mutel, who gave a climate change presentation to the class. Some of the interesting takeaways from this lecture were climate change has been observed since the 1800s and that Iowa is the world’s most transformed surface. For taking the class in the hydrology department the discussion surrounding water was lacking, however, she offered hope for the future. This was nice compared to our meeting the following day with Dr. Chris Jones, who offered more of a doom and gloom perspective. To him we are past the point of no return and he does not believe that there are any options to reverse what has happened. We discussed his blogs with him and he described where problems are, such as not knowing the amount of hog operations there are in the state, and not having the DNR personal to regulate the hog barns in a way that he believes is sufficient.

Monday night we had a fantastic dinner with State rep. Mascher, where we discussed the current state of politics and individuals views, and then transitioned to state-level issues. Rep. Mascher elaborated on the sanctuary city bill signed by the governor and said it did not change any practices, but worried for what it could lead to in legal cases and application. What was a more interesting discussion about proposed solar panel legislation. This legislation would change the pricing and place more of a burden on the individual with solar panels for connecting to the grid vs the power companies. Rep. Mascher wants a study to be conducted to see if the price is enough to warrant raising the burden shared by the individual. But this could harm farmers similar to the Welshs (near Lansing) who put up solar panels for energy, shade for chickens, and the financial benefits they get for sending energy back to the grid.

Back to Tuesday, we met with Dr. Dave Cwiertny to discuss water. A major focus of this discussion was well water. Well water is private water, and thus falls outside of federal oversight. It is up to individuals to check their wells; however Iowa has a state program on the county level that will test wells for certain bacteria, however, it is underutilized because it does not leave the well owners with anything other than a recommendation as to their next steps. Some people will also not use it because they view it as giving the state access to their land. The burden is in those who take the extra step and pony up the money to filter or shock their well. Dr. Cwirtny also discussed how other countries monitor water at the source and restrict by watersheds to reduce costs. He ended with offering some hope, our generation is much more informed due to technology, and looking forward this will result in problems being solved.