VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Barnes County Commission approved of Pipestone Farms request for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) during their regular board meeting on Tuesday, March 17th. The vote was 4 to one to approve the (CUP), Commissioner Vicky Lovell was the sole vote against the motion.
Pipestone Farms will now pursue the approval of several state permits before they will be allowed to build a 7,717 swine or 3,161 Animal Unit (AU) Hog farrowing Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) in Barnes County.
Under the plan, Pipestone management will serve as the farm’s manager for the Bullerman and Karges family partnership in Barnes County.
The hog farm would be located 13 miles north of Oriska, ND on Highway 32 and two miles west on 20th St. S.E. or about 2.5 miles east of the Ashtabula Wind Farm site in Barnes County.
Marilyn Henderson and the family farm is located two miles east of the proposed site, she was disappointed with the commissions decision to approve the conditional use permit.
Grady Karges farms north of Oriska, he talked about how this hog facility will benefit their family farming operation.
David Bullerman of Son-D-Farms talked about the positive impact this hog production facility will have for area corn farmers.
The three proposed buildings, a gestation barn, farrowing barn and gilt growing barn, and compost site would be used to house the pigs. Manure would be stored in a pit beneath the animals inside of the barn. There will be routine manure pit treatments along with cleaning and sanitation. The liquid manure would be applied to fields in the fall as fertilizer for locally grown crops.
The estimate local economic impact would be nearly $4 million annually according to Pipestone management. The farm will employ 16 full-time jobs. Feed purchased locally would be approximately $2.4 million per year. Grain use of about 175,000 bu. of corn and 40,000 bu. of soybeans would be used to feed the animals.
On Tuesday, March 10th the Barnes County Planning and Zoning Board unanimously approved of the conditional use permit to build the hog operation facility following testimony during a public hearing in the courthouse.
Additional public hearings will be held in the future as Pipestone Farms pursues the state permitting process.