Story and photo by Amy Eddings
The stereotype of country living is that everyone knows everyone else’s business. That didn’t hold true for neighbors of a new pig barn being built in Hancock County, less than a quarter mile from Hardin County resident Liz Vogt.
“I walk their creek,” she said of the Daft family farm. “I saw that [crews] were digging. I thought I’d go up and see what they were doing. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if they were building a new barn."
That thought quickly vanished when Vogt learned from construction workers that Bo Daft was indeed building a new barn — a pig barn — for up to 2,500 pigs.
“I’m shocked,” said Vogt, who, along with the Daft family, fought eight years ago against the siting of a 5,000-head dairy operation a mile away. “No one had known. No one."
Neighbors don't have to know. Agricultural uses on agricultural property are as-of-right. Orange Township, where the farm is located, does not have any zoning restrictions. Hancock County does not conduct any review. And the state doesn’t require permits to install or operate a hog farm until it involves 2,500 pigs or more. The only requirement is for the farmer to have a manure management plan.
The barn is being built along Hancock County Rd 12, just north of the intersection of Township Road 65 and the county line. Daft, whose family has farmed this land since 1837, said his ancestors raised pigs.
"The history of this farm, the whole 160 acre farm right here, had hogs forever,” he said.
But Daft’s grandfather, who raised 60 hogs from farrow to slaughter, would not recognize modern swine management.
Daft will be raising the pigs for Kalmbach Swine Management of Upper Sandusky. Kalmbach will supply the hogs, feed and medications; Daft provides the barn, the labor and manure control.
“Today’s society is a little different in raising animals. You don’t have three chickens and two cows and a goat,” said Daft. “Now, everybody specializes in certain things and you kind of do things in a different way."
Daft and his father, Mark, farm straw, which they turn into erosion blankets, corn and soybeans. Bo has 200 acres; Mark, 1,000. Both said corn prices have not kept pace with the cost of fertilizer and pesticides.
“I’ve got a wife and a new baby,” said Bo. “Two hundred acres isn’t going to provide for me. Every farmer has a side job of some sort. I approached Kalmbach. This is all me."
Liz Vogt said she’s surprised that the Dafts would get involved in large-scale animal farming, given their concerns years ago about the proposed dairy farm. (It never went forward because the backers went bankrupt.)
“They forgot about all the things they did learn about how toxic it is,” she said.
There’s the smell, for one thing. And the potential for flies and other vermin. If poorly managed, concentrated animal feeding operations can threaten public health. Runoff from fields treated with manure from such large-scale farms can foul drinking water, beaches and waterways with E.coli and other dangerous bacteria. Dust and odors may cause respiratory problems.
Bo Daft said he plans to comply with all state environmental requirements for manure management.
He and his dad said their hog operation is going to be a lot less detrimental to the environment than the big dairy farm would have been. They said that outfit would have had 15 to 20 trucks a day going into and out of the farm, transporting milk and silage. They said the pig farm would involve, on average, two truck trips a week for feed.
“That dairy farm was more of a commercial deal, I would say,” said Bo. He said he has no interest in super-sizing his operation.
“It was mega,” said Mark. “We aren’t mega. This is just a big barn."
“This is just a big barn with hogs,” said Bo.
As work proceeds on the barn, Liz Vogt is moving ahead with plans to put her little blue house on the market. She said one realtor has already visited, and she’s going to make an appointment with another.
“I don’t want to live a quarter of a mile from a pig barn,” she said. “I don’t know what i’m going to do."
