Background: Hansen is a third-generation family farmer from Iowa Falls, Iowa. He and wife Deb married after high school in He and Deb bought three sows from a local sale barn and started their own farrowing operation. In , they founded Iowa Select Farms with 10, sows. Skip to main content. Content ID By Betsy Freese. SF: Why expand now? Read more about Hogs. Activists associated with the group Direct Action Everywhere traveled to Hansen's home along Glen Oaks Drive in West Des Moines, dug graves in the yard, began a eulogy and attempted to bury the pig carcasses around 3 p.
They were soon apprehended by law enforcement and a live Facebook video of the event posted by the group ended. In late May, the California-based animal rights group released secretly videotaped footage of Iowa Select workers euthanizing thousands of pigs at a Grundy County facility by shutting down ventilation and increasing the heat and humidity.
The company euthanized the hogs after it was unable to send them to meatpacking plants that had been forced to slow or halt production as workers fell ill with COVID It was eye-opening. Hansen was the first producer in the nation to establish a Lagoon Assurance Program after a major manure release was discovered at the farm of another Iowa producer. The field tile nearby the lagoon had not been removed or capped, which allowed most of the manure in the structure to drain away.
He met with his nutrient management team the next morning to develop a written protocol to deal with potential tile lines around manure storage structures. The protocol called for an 8-ft.
In , Iowa Select Farms was the first Iowa pork producer to be recognized with the National Environmental Stewardship Award, co-sponsored by National Hog Farmer and the National Pork Board, for their innovative farm design, manure management and for taking proactive measures to protect the environment. Iowa Select Farms currently ranks sixth in the nation, with , sows, with pigs raised on over farms, including almost contract producer farms.
All but one farm is located in Iowa. The employee count now stands near 1, Hansen admits that locating sows in less pig-dense areas is appealing, especially to control the exposure to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome PRRS. While the opportunities in the U. Iowa Select Farms uses about 32 million bushels of corn annually.
Ever appreciative for the support that individuals and communities have given to Iowa Select Farms over the years, giving back has been top of mind for the Hansens.
Iowa Select Farms has dedicated a semi tractor and trailer to deliver boneless pork loins and hams throughout the year to food banks in rural Iowa communities. Last year, they gave away 3, pork loins in three hours.
In addition, the Hansens have pledged to help build a new Agriculture Student Learning Center at Iowa State, and they have donated funds toward a new hospital in their home community of Iowa Falls. Farmers raised a variety of breeds in barns and in pens. As the herd grew, the couple found the work grueling — particularly Deb, who had quit her office job to manage the pigs.
Quickly grasping the potential of mechanized livestock equipment, Hansen sought a loan to build a business around these automated systems. CAFOs allow operators to farrow thousands of pigs in one barn, a model that depends on liberal use of antibiotics to prevent diseases that thrive in crowded conditions.
After weaning, the pigs are transferred to a finishing operation. Their next transfer is their last — to the slaughterhouse. These two trips in a packed semi are the only daylight the pigs will ever see. In the sheds, powerful exhaust fans constantly suck out the ammonia rising from the manure lagoons. Shut off the fans and hogs would die within hours , cut off from ventilation and left to overheat and ultimately suffocate, as whistleblowers say they did last year when the pandemic disrupted slaughterhouse operations and Iowa Select needed to quickly kill hundreds of thousands of animals.
While Hansen continued expanding his CAFO business, farm economists signaled that if Iowa were friendly to corporations that wanted to expand hog CAFOs, the growth potential was enormous: Trade agreements that cut tariffs and import restrictions in Asia and Mexico had swung open the world market for livestock products — particularly eggs and pork.
CAFOs were also attractive because the big meatpackers, which purchased, slaughtered, and packaged pork, were now offering contracts with locked-in prices. For meatpackers, buying from CAFOs was vastly more profitable than buying from a patchwork of independent growers, who sold pigs of varying breeds and sizes at local auctions. CAFOs provided a steady stream of pigs in predictable sizes that were ready for slaughter on an exacting schedule. The region also has abundant groundwater hogs are thirsty.
After steadily expanding his CAFO-building business, Hansen decided, in , that he could also make money with his own hogs. He incorporated a new company, Iowa Select Farms, signed a contract with a meatpacker, and started with a herd of 10, sows. In its first four years, Iowa Select more than quintupled its herd to 62, , enough to crack the top 10 largest pork producers in the country. By , Iowa Select, with 96, sows , was selling 1.
Today, two-thirds of Iowa hogs are grown on contract with big meatpackers. Iowa Select Farms is now the fourth-largest hog producer in the country, and owns about 15 percent of the pork production in Iowa.
Its sow herd is , , and growing. As confinement buildings and their manure ponds spread rapidly across the Iowa countryside through the late s, a passionate rural backlash emerged, sparking a prolonged battle over the future of farming in Iowa. Protesters packed gymnasiums and crowded hallways in the statehouse. Coalitions held rallies — one drew 1, supporters to a town of 2, — and lobbied legislators to enact a state moratorium on new confinement construction, or at least give counties the option to deny the necessary building permits.
Pushback came from all directions. Right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan even made his opposition to confinements a key part of his presidential campaign in Iowa. Bob Dole — elevated him from protest candidate to legitimate contender. Iowa Select and industry leaders knew these movements could defeat them. National newspapers frequently covered the story. Scientists also began to document negative health effects among people who lived near confinements.
One study of North Carolina residents who lived within a few miles of clustered confinements found that they had lower life expectancy and higher rates of infant deaths, asthma, kidney disease, tuberculosis, and blood poisoning than those who lived further away.
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