Iowa Farmer Today
03-14-07
Farmers seek to bring livestock back to Southwest Iowa
By Jeff DeYoung, Iowa Farmer Today
HASTINGS -- Rod Seipold looks around at the rolling hills near his Mills County
home, and says he has wondered for several years why some of those hills
weren’t covered with cow herds and hog facilities.
“We used to have a lot of hogs in this county, but we don’t even have a county
pork producers organization anymore,” he says.
“We have some urban growth around Glenwood, but that’s more than 15 miles
away from here. I just never understood why we lost our livestock.”
Seipold runs a cow-calf operation on his diversified farm near here and also
supplies feeder pigs for Niman Ranch producers.
The Southwest Iowa farmer decided to do something about the lack of producers
and helped create United for Agriculture Southwest Iowa.
The group is affiliated with Farm Bureau and includes livestock producers from
four other Southwest Iowa counties: Page, Fremont, Montgomery and
Pottawattamie.
Their goal is to bring a thriving livestock industry back to Southwest Iowa.
“We have the smallest number of livestock per farm operation in the state, and
Mills County is one of the smallest,” Seipold says.
“That’s kind of what motivated us to start this group, to make sure that agriculture
in general is a viable industry in Southwest Iowa.”
Southwest Iowa is just one of many areas in the state with the potential to grow
its livestock industry, says Mark Imerman, an ag economist at Iowa State
University.
With the growth of the ethanol industry, he says livestock production should
increase because of the readily available feedstuffs.
“With ethanol and cattle in particular, the feed source is here,” Imerman says.
“It’s better for those plants to produce the feed closer to the cattle because it’s
less costly to have to truck it or dry it for the plants. They won’t site a plant in an
area that doesn’t want the livestock industry.”
Imerman concedes the growth of the ethanol industry could be tough for livestock
that need to eat a larger percentage of corn, such as hogs and poultry.
He says parts of Iowa may be more conducive than others for this growth. For
example, Imerman says the more lightly populated counties of Southwest Iowa
may be suitable for livestock growth.
“You have more land that is suitable for pastures rather than crop production, so
certainly that encourages cow-calf production,” he says. “There are fewer people,
and that also helps with expansion because it would probably be less
contentious.
“But, we have seen the hog industry grow in North Central Iowa in recent years
because more feed is produced in that area. I really think there are opportunities
no matter where you live.”
Imerman believes the potential for growth is there for all of Iowa, as does Aaron
Putze, executive director of the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers in Des
Moines.
“We are focused on helping areas of the state move forward with pro-livestock
initiatives,” he says.
“We want to make sure we are growing our livestock industry responsibly and
sensibly, and to make areas of Iowa a destination for livestock farms and related
businesses that go along with it.”
Putze says it’s important livestock producers are responsible neighbors and
stewards of the land.
They need to be available to their neighbors and be open about any expansion
plans they may have.
“Both parties need to be mindful of the concerns and expectations of the other,”
he notes.
While there are always challenges to growing any industry, Putze believes the
time is right to increase livestock production in Iowa, especially with the evergrowing supply of co-products coming out of ethanol plants.
“We received more calls for assistance and information from dairy and cattle
operations in the period from November 2006 to February 2007 than we did in
the previous 21⁄2 years,” Putze says.
“That tells me that producers from throughout the state are looking at some of
these opportunities, and they are wanted to grow their operation.
“Iowa has always been a welcoming place for livestock production.”
Seipold says the ethanol dynamic certainly has changed the near-term outlook
for livestock producers. Feed costs will be higher, especially for hog producers
who may not be able to use ethanol co-products, such as cattle and dairy
operations, he says.
“Things are going to change a lot in the next couple of years. But, we still believe
the opportunity is there to have more livestock in Southwest Iowa.”
Seipold says his group is willing to help anyone interested in starting a livestock
operation in his area.
“We are doing things to make sure our economic development and political
leaders aware that there are areas in Southwest Iowa that would be ideal for
livestock production,” Seipold says.
“If people have questions, I’m more than willing to talk to anyone that would be
interested in coming down here.
“We’d really like to see the livestock industry come back to our part of Iowa.”