The Duewer family celebrated the opening of their new 3,600 head feeder-to-finish hog barn near Waverly in Morgan County by hosting an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 26.

Farming is truly a family affair for the Duewer family. Rich and Teri along with their sons Gavin and Brendon and Rich's parents Raymond and Dorothy farm 1,200 acres of crops. In addition to raising hogs, the Duewers also raise cattle.

"Every generation of our family has raised hogs," says Rich Duewer. "We decided to build the new 3,600 head barn as an expansion of our existing farm to provide an opportunity to keep our kids, the fifth generation, involved in the farm."

FAMILY FARMING: (left to right) Rich Duewer, Teri Duewer, Gavin Duewer, Hannah Gesell

The Duewers will be contracting with The Maschhoffs to raise the small pigs to market size. "We had a farrow to finish hog farm until 1998," adds Duewer. "We began working with The Maschhoffs in 2000 and have been a production partner with them ever since."

The new feeder-to-finish barn will house 3,600 head of pigs. Pigs will enter the building weighing around 40 pounds, where they will be housed until they reach market weight of 280 pounds.

 "The new hog barn protects the environment, cares for the pigs and creates a safe place for the workers," says Duewer. "The new barn has many technologically advanced features that increase the efficiencies of raising the pigs, but will also improve the welfare of the pigs. The building is tunnel ventilated, which improves air flow inside the building and thus improves the pigs' health."

The Open House and Ribbon Cutting was sponsored by many partners including: The Maschhoffs, Longhorn Cattle & Swine Confinement, Farmweld Inc. Bank of Springfield., Illinois Pork Producers Association and the Pork Checkoff.

 "IPPA helped to sponsor the open house to celebrate and highlight the role of Illinois pig farmers as stewards of their community and the environment, as well as an important contributor to the local and state economy," notes Tim Maiers, IPPA Director of Industry and Public Relations. 

The pork industry is very important to our state's economy.  According to a study conducted by Peter Goldsmith, associate professor of Agribusiness Management at the University of Illinois, the Illinois pork industry contributes $1 billion in direct impact and $1.8 billion and 10,533 jobs of total impact to the State's economy in addition to providing $170 million in total taxes.  The pork industry is also important to Illinois agriculture as it consumes over 69 million bushels of corn and 22.5 million bushels of soybeans each year.

 "The new hog farm will bring additional economic activity to our local economy," says Duewer. "We will also be adding additional tax revenue to the county, of which a large portion will go to the Waverly school district."

The open house is also an opportunity to highlight the environmental stewardship implemented by today's modern hog farms. Swine manure is a natural fertilizer that saves billions of cubic feet of natural gas which would otherwise be used to manufacture commercial fertilizers.

Pork producers are held to a zero discharge standard in the management of manure. "All of our manure is required to be completely contained in the deep pit under the barn," says Duewer. "We will be injecting the manure to surrounding corn and soybean fields according to the crops needs based on our nutrient management plan. Getting the manure to use as a fertilizer for our crops will be a great benefit of this new barn."

More than 175 neighbors, rural residents, and local community residents attended the open house and enjoyed a tour of the new hog barn and also were treated to a free pork chop on a stick.

Source: Illinois Pork Producers Association