Embrace data — it is critical to your future

EMBRACE

DATA — it is critical to your future

From production trends to financials, farms are already collecting data; the next step includes tracking environmental impacts.

by Lauren Brey

mid growing interest in the source of food and how it is produced, customers are seeking information about the sustainability of what they eat and drink. Adding to that, the flurry of activity around environmental, social, and governance is causing supply chains to scramble to make commitments and prove they are taking action.

Part of taking action is gathering data so companies can prove they are making progress. Food companies have access to their own information about how they process products, but they also need to get data from the source of their raw materials — farmers.

A framework to follow

Many farmers are already using data to better manage their businesses. On the animal side, it might be measuring milk production and components, weights, feed quality, and genetic information. On the crop side, you might use GPS and sensing technology, soil tests, and yield data. This is also common when it comes to farm financials. While you may not be collecting exactly what will be requested from a food company, you already use data to make management decisions, and there is opportunity to do the same with sustainability data.

Farmers for Sustainable Food (FSF) is a collaborative, industry-supported effort to promote and support farmer-led solutions to today’s environmental challenges. We support farmer-led conservation groups as well as supply chain sustainability projects with a regional focus in the Upper Midwest. FSF provides administration, communications, events, strategy, technical expertise, and funding for six farmer-led groups and sustainability project coordination and management.

We help farmers gather data on their environmental impact regarding crop production and land management through several avenues. One way is through a simple conservation practice survey, supported by our partners at The Nature Conservancy, that aggregates information about what farmers in farmer-led conservation groups are doing on the land and models the impact they are having on phosphorus savings and sediment erosion.

Another avenue is through sustainability projects. Farmers and their partners can access FSF’s Framework for Farm-level Sustainability Projects. This is an easy-to-use handbook that helps farmers determine which conservation practices are most effective for their individual farms by equipping them with the tools necessary to document the environmental and financial effects of conservation practices. The framework is designed to be flexible, so it can be replicated for projects elsewhere. It’s free to use and available at FarmersForSustainableFood.com.

The guide covers four areas of consideration for establishing and executing farmer-centric sustainability projects: 1. Engagement 2. Formation 3. Operation 4. Conclusion

Focus areas can be both environmental and financial. It also suggests tools that farmers and their partners can use in their projects.

Tracking progress

Starting in 2019, this framework was put to the test through a three-year pilot project in southwestern Wisconsin, and three more projects launched in 2021.

Through the pilot project, farmers completed financial and environmental analyses to develop benchmarks. Financial baselines were set to evaluate return on investment (ROI) year-overyear, and farmers determined what conservation practices worked best for their farm.

The project received the “Outstanding Supply Chain Collaboration” award from the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy in 2021 and is now being dupli-

cated by other farmer-led groups and food companies.

One tool being used in FSF-supported sustainability projects that is available to any farmer is Field to Market’s Fieldprint Platform. The platform is a pioneering assessment framework that empowers brands, retailers, suppliers, and farmers at every stage in their sustainability journey to measure the environmental impacts of commodity crop production and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

Farmers can access this free and confidential tool through the online Fieldprint Calculator or through associated farm-management software that integrates the platform’s metrics and algorithms into the tools that farmers are already using. Brands, retailers, and suppliers can then access aggregated data from farmers who opt to participate in Continuous Improvement Projects.

Farmers get scores about each field they enter data on, as well as aggregate scores in eight areas of sustainability: biodiversity, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, irrigated water use, land use, soil carbon, soil conservation, and water quality. This data helps farmers make management decisions to improve their field activities as well as share their sustainability story downstream to the customers of their products.

Seize the opportunity

This is just one option available for data collection. Recognizing there are many categories for continuous improvement, there is also still a need to improve the collection and management of all this data to make it easier to use and understand. Various programs and platforms, plus the time needed to enter the information, can make it a challenge to use the information to its fullest potential. The good news is there are companies working on programs to put the data into a dashboard. Also, don’t be afraid to look for support from technical experts in the environmental or financial space to support you in your collection and analysis.

Sustainability is a journey and it takes a team of people over time to navigate it. Reach out to trusted advisers for support and make a commitment for several years to use a tool before you can determine the value and your progress. One year of data and information is not enough to understand trends.

This work must be done collectively and all parties have a role to play. Let’s view this interest in food and farming practices as an opportunity rather than a threat and make our data work for us, both in farm management and for our customers. It’s never too late to start. ■

The author is the managing director for Farmers for Sustainable Food.

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SPREADING NUTRIENTS & GOODWILL

The Reicks family has grown their hog farm in a way that keeps manure close to the fields and their generosity close to home.

by Abby Bauer, Managing Editor

“F amilies Feeding Families” is the motto that emerged as Dale and Laura Reicks grew their hog operation from scratch. The husband-and-wife duo founded Reicks View Farms in 1979 with 240 acres of corn and 200 sows. The family-owned farm, which now includes their children Brady and Kaylie, has grown to 13,000 acres and 1.5 million hogs finished per year. With 300 employees, 130 production partners, and consumers across the country, the Reicks are certainly doing their part to feed families.

Sustainable practices have always been at the core of the farm’s growth. In fact, one of their company’s values is to be “clean and green.” Over the years, they have planted trees, added filtration systems to their barns, participated in a variety of recycling programs, and more recently, installed solar panels. And, since the very beginning, they have made sure to utilize the value of the manure produced by their livestock. Reicks View Farms is headquartered in Lawler, Iowa. With Dale’s passion for architecture, their beautiful office serves as grand central station for the farm. At the main site is a sow barn, shop, and warehouse. This is also the location of their feed mill, which mixes nearly all the feed needed for their hogs, some 9,500 tons per week. There is storage for 2.8 million bushels of corn on site, and 400 semitruck loads of grain move in and out of the feed mill each week.

Jason Demaray serves as general manager of support services. After working for almost two decades in agricultural banking, Demaray joined the

Reicks View Farms includes 175 finisher sites in northeast Iowa. A barn houses 2,500 head at a time, with 5,000 hogs moving through each barn annually.

team at Reicks View Farms a few years ago. As we sat in his office, it was easy to see the web of activity required to keep the farm operating smoothly.

A map hanging on the wall shows every sow or finishing site owned or contracted by the farm. Rather than simply expanding at one location, they have spread out their hog facilities by purchasing nearby land as it became available. This allows them to generate manure close to the fields that can best utilize the nutrients.

“Dale has always understood the value of manure,” Demaray shared. “His philosophy has been that there’s a lot of value there, and we are going to try to capture as much as we can.” They strive to get the full benefit of the nutrients and build up fertility by banking it in the soil.

Today, they have 175 finishing barns that house 2,500 head each. They also work with more than 100 contract growers in northeast Iowa, including a few barns that Demaray owns himself, that finish hogs for the operation. In all, Reicks View Farms produces about 1% of the nation’s hogs.

The most recent expansion created enough space to hold over 60,000 sows. They currently have 11 sow units in operation, with a 12th under construction. They also own a boar stud and collect all their own semen. In addition, they raise gilts as a Pig Improvement Company (PIC) multiplier herd.

Hog production starts in the nursery, and they have room for 210,000 preweaned pigs at a time. While some farms may hire out this phase of production, it has been Dale’s philosophy that if they can get the pigs started on the right foot, and get them to feeder pig weight, that a majority of the hard work is already done.

Most of the company owned barns are “greenfield” facilities that they designed and built; it has not been their desire to purchase existing buildings. From the start, Dale said, “Let’s build our own,” and that has been a better long-term strategy for the farm, Demaray shared. Another division of Reicks View Farms is Jerico Construction, their own construction crew that builds facilities for the farm.

Like most any farm, labor is a great opportunity and a necessity. While the farm has good retention rates for employees, there is still a fair amount of turnover. “Pigs are easy, they do what they are supposed to do, but people are harder,” Demaray noted.

The Reicks are proud to provide employment options in their local community, and they feel that anyone willing to do manual labor can be trained to work in their barns. Most of their

farrowing department is made up of women, as they have found them to have a more natural skillset for this area. They utilize Hispanic labor, and they have found these individuals to have good attitudes with a desire to learn and work hard. The farm is working on its first group of green card applications as another source of potential employees.

It has been more difficult to hire for their transportation unit, as Demaray said there are simply not enough CDL operators available. Transportation is a big part of their business, as they are moving 75,000 hogs every week. About 25,000 weaned pigs are moved out of the sow units, and 25,000 are moved out of the nursery to the finisher barns. Another 25,000 hogs are transported to market, with the majority of their hogs being sold to Tyson. Their location in Iowa places them close to several market options, which the Reicks consider a benefit to their operation.

With all this animal movement, they are washing and disinfecting 200 trailers a week. “It takes a lot of work and expense, but the benefits for animal health are worth it,” Demaray said of their commitment to biosecurity.

They recently built a new truck wash that includes six bays, more automation, and a floor with a 4-foot slope from the front of the trailer to the back that allows bedding and waste to be removed more easily. These new features maximize the farm’s biosecurity practices and reduce the amount of water required to get the job done.

Abby Bauer

Jason Demaray serves as general manager of support services and closely monitors the day-to-day operations of the farm. Capturing the nutrients

When you have livestock, you have manure, and Demaray said, “We handle a lot of manure. It is a huge undertaking to manage.”

Manure accumulates in the underground storage beneath each barn. For the past five years, they have used a manure additive called Triune that prevents crusting in the stored manure and reduces odor. Working with Iowa State University researchers, air filtration systems that reduce both odor and ammonia emissions have also been incorporated in some of their newer barns.

The manure’s nutrient content varies depending on what facility it comes from. Manure from the sow units, for example, has a lower nutrient value due to the amount of wash water that also makes its way into storage, and as such, it must be applied to fields at a higher rate. The sow barn manure contains 10 to 15 units of nitrogen per 1,000 gallons, compared to manure from the finishing barns that has 40 units of nitrogen per 1,000 gallons.

Manure is pumped out of the underbarn storages and transferred using a dragline system. Manure is applied using an application tool bar. In the past they had used a three-point system on the back of a tractor, but the weight of the machine caused stress on the tractor and compaction in the fields. They recently switched to a pull type bar that distributes the weight more evenly in hopes to eliminate those two

Manure is pumped through draglines and then injected into the soil to capture the most value from nutrients.

Abby Bauer

problems. Manure is injected into the ground, and Demaray said with this system, odor is reduced during application and more nutrients are retained.

They typically complete about 60% of their application in the fall and 40% in the spring. Dale prefers spring application as less nitrogen is lost, but it makes sense for their operation to empty the manure storages in both spring and fall, even though most of them have a years’ worth of capacity.

Demaray acknowledged that there are more costs associated with split application, but they are finding that visiting fields twice helps them do a more uniform job and cover some of the gaps.

“We are seeing a good yield response, so we are going to continue to do it,” he shared. A lower application rate also helps their fields to dry out more quickly in the spring, allowing their cropping crew to begin planting sooner.

The lead pump at the barn can push the manure a mile, and booster pumps are used when needed to go further than that. Before application, they work the perimeter of each field to help minimize any runoff.

Demaray said that prior to application season, they test their manure, sending more than 150 samples for laboratory analysis. Following their state’s requirements, they also take soil samples for analysis every four years. They use these results to determine what application rates and locations make the most sense.

“We want to determine where we are going to get the best bang for our buck with the manure we have,” Demaray said. “We try to be as efficient as we can, especially with the recent run up in commercial fertilizer prices.”

In hog country, most farms are in corn production year after year, which allows them to efficiently utilize their manure and produce the feed they need for their hogs. In all, the Reicks fertilize about 10,000 acres with manure, and they do nearly all the application themselves with their own equipment and a crew of four employees dedicated to nutrient management. Another staff member, with the help of an outside consultant, works to update close to 200 nutrient management plans each year.

Every facility has a manure management plan, and while these plans are a requirement to guide application, Demaray said the farm’s motivation to manage manure comes from capturing its value.

“We are regulated, but it’s the value of the manure that really drives more of that than the regulations,” Demaray shared. “It’s not just a cost of disposal for us; it’s really a co-product. It’s a very valuable by-product of producing pigs that we can fully utilize. The economics drive more decisions than regulations.”

Looking to the future

Demaray’s roots in agriculture were established by helping on his grandfather’s farm as a child. He said that was where he picked up his love of agriculture. After college, he got a job in the agriculture industry working as a lender for Farm Credit for nearly two decades. Over the years he saved some money to purchase land and put up a contract finishing barn. That generated equity, and he was able to buy another farm and grow his own side operation.

Through his work that specialized in swine farm lending, he met the Reicks. At the time, Dale was looking to add someone to their management team, and Demaray agreed. Since joining the company, he has also bought and rented more land and put up four additional contract barns, now raising hogs for Reicks View Farms. He sees his personal farm as an opportunity for him and his wife to instill in their three children a knowledge of farming and the value of hard work.

“It’s been fun for me to be able to do that, to grow my personal business, and at the same time, help grow the Reicks’ business,” Demaray noted.

Dale and Laura’s children had that opportunity to grow up surrounded by agriculture, and today, they are proud to be the next generation of Reicks View Farms. Brady and Kaylie continue to grow into their ownership roles and look for opportunities to improve the business in several ways, including the area of sustainability. As an example, a few years ago, the farm was presented the opportunity to build a solar array within their footprint. After some consideration, a partnership between the two siblings called Reicks View Renewables was created, and a solar array covering 3 acres was installed in March of 2020. The panels produce between 80% and 90% of the farm’s peak energy needs.

“As we evaluated the solar installation, we found it to be a sustainable effort and a long-term investment in understanding renewable energy,” Demaray explained. “We liked it in part because it helps show that we want to be good stewards of the land, that we want to be as sustainable and renewable as we can, and that we are willing to try technology.”

Telling their story will be a priority for the farm’s future, too. The Reicks are very involved in their local community, and the siblings are focused on connecting with the “movable middle,”

the people they feel are open to learning more about agriculture.

While manure handling isn’t always an easy story to tell, Demaray said that people find it interesting when they learn how their manure is utilized in a nearly closed loop system. With 2,500 head in each of their finisher barns and two groups finished per year, each barn houses 5,000 pigs. They share with the public that those animals produce enough manure to fertilize 160 acres.

With corn that yields around 200 bushels per acre, that manure fertilizes 32,000 bushels of corn. Each pig consumes about 6 bushels of corn, so most of the corn fertilized by the manure is fed to the next 5,000 hogs housed in that barn, and the cycle continues.

“When people hear that, they often say, ‘Whoa, that’s sustainable,’” Demaray explained. “It is pretty cool when people can make that connection.”

Community connections go beyond the farm, though. Many charitable donations are made annually to local groups and events as part of the Melissa Lea Reicks Foundation, a fund created in honor of Dale and Laura’s oldest daughter who tragically passed away in 2003. The Reicks also offer several college scholarships for students pursuing careers in agriculture. In 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, they donated 20,000 pounds of pork to community members and thousands of N-95 masks to a local hospital.

The motto “Families Feeding Families” really drives the daily operations of Reicks View Farms. Demaray emphasized that not only is the farm family owned, but many employees support their families by working here, and they have multiple members of the same family working for them.

“We are impacting others with this successful business,” Demaray said. “It is an economic engine that helps keep the community going.” With the next generation involved and a focus on sustainable agriculture in place, the Reicks are poised to remain a leader in both the hog industry and in their Iowa community for years to come. ■

Submitted

The Reicks family of Lawler, Iowa: Dale, Laura, Kaylie, Tessa holding Miller, and Brady holding Marley.

California Dairy Sustainability Summit

Hosted by:

April 12-14, 2022 Virtual Event

- Top-Notch Speakers - Tech Showcases - Research Presentations - Virtual Expo Hall

Explore Innovative Ways to:

- Reduce Emissions - Conserve and Protect Water - Improve Use of Manure Nutrients - Maximize Operational Efficiency - Develop New Business Opportunities - Advance Herd Genetics - Reduce On-Farm Costs

Learn From:

dairy farmers, regulators & policymakers, industry leaders, major dairy customers, tech providers, researchers, and other experts, as we promote the continued advancement of sustainable dairy farm practices