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brand. Visit our website for more information. mation.
July 2009 www.beckshybrids.coms.com
Ohio’s Source for Ag Information
News Crops LivestoCk
Clean Water Act reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Crops Environmental Steward . . . . . . . . . . .15 Livestock Environmental Stewards .21-24,27
Environmental stewardship is
front-page news
ByMAttREESE ing with a 9-foot deep pit for holding 14
Today might not be a good day for months of manure storage capacity.
Jerry Niese, who often tells his family, “If Additional 1,000-head buildings were
my name is not in the obituary or on the built in 1996 and 1999. These newer
front page, it was a good day.” buildings rely on natural ventilation with
But, with the ever-increasing scrutiny chimneys. Pit additives are used to
of animal agriculture, manure handling reduce odors and keep crusts from form-
and crop production, the Niese Brothers ing, which helps reduce fly populations
(who raise more than 1,000 acres of and allows the pits to empty more com-
crops, sell 26,000 hogs annually and cus- pletely during manure application.
tom applied more than 55 million gallons The hog facilities also have concrete
of manure in northwest Ohio last year) pump-out covers for safety and odor
have good reasons for staying out of the reduction and a custom designed hog
spotlight, and the obituaries. They have loading area that helps reduce stress —
thus far been successful at both by sim- for humans and hogs. The Nieses have
ply doing things the right way in their an inspected facility for storage of fuel
operation, which is not always so simple. and fertilizer as well.
Jerry oversees the custom manure The farm’s flat, rich fields in Putnam
business, Dennis works with the crops, and Hancock counties were once used for
marketing and the banker, and Kenny producing vegetables, mostly tomatoes, for
works with the hogs and grinds and area processors. With dropping prices and From the left, Kenny, Jerry and Dennis Niese have taken many steps to do things right in their hog, crop and
delivers the feed for the six hog finishing diminishing markets, the brothers gradual-
manure application operation in Hancock and Putnam counties to win the 2009 Ohio Pork Environmental
buildings. Each brother manages one of ly switched to more corn, soybean, wheat
Stewardship Award.
the hog facilities in addition to three con- and hay acres. By 2001, they had complete-
pickles and peppers, they produce about mill handles five different base rations
tract finishers that, combined, finish ly stopped vegetable production to focus
70,000 bushels of the 250,000 bushels of including dried distillers grains with sol-
26,000 hogs annually. on their other ventures.
corn needed each year to feed the hogs, ubles (DDGs) from the nearby ethanol
The Niese brothers formed Signature “I thought I missed the tomatoes that
with the remainder being purchased plant in Leipsic.
Pork in 1979, starting by finishing pigs in first year we stopped growing them,”
from neighbors. The farm’s feed mill has “The biggest problem with the DDGs
a 126- by 80-foot barn holding 400 head Jerry said. “Then I watched some of our
120,000 bushels of grain storage capacity is the flowability,” Kenny said. “But the
with a straw pack manure system. The neighbors out harvesting them in the
and a grinding capacity of 6 tons per DDGs we’re working with have been of
operation was expanded and in 1995 the mud and I was cured.”
hour with the computerized ability to consistent quality.”
Nieses built a 1,000-head total slat build- Now, instead of tomatoes, sugar beets,
mix 18 separate feed ingredients. The
continued on page 27

YO U R 2 0 0 9
September 22, 23, 24, 2009
BALE O UT.
Molly Caren Agricultural Center
London, Ohio
Be there.
Surviving in the current economy can be
Tuesday and W ednesday,
challenging. Wondering where your bailout is?
8:00 A.M.–5:00 P.M.
It’s at the 47th annual Farm Science Review.
Thursday, 8:00 A.M.–4:00 P.M.
Buy Your Tickets today.
$5.00 in advance and $8.00 at the gate.
Children 5 and under are admitted free.
Tickets are available from OSU Extension
offices and local agribusinesses.
Explore 83 acres of exhibits, 600 exhibitors,
more than 4000 equipment brands and more
than 750 acres of field demonstrations. visit us at: fsr.osu.edu
If your business is agriculture…our business is you! If your business is a agriculture…our busines ss is you!



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