Veldkamp Farms win national environmental honor

Veldkamp Farms, located near Jasper, was recently named a 2008 Pork Industry Environmental Steward Award winner. Pipestone County pork producers Jim and JoAnn Veldkamp, along with their employees Randy Baden and Joe Buysse, are recognized for their commitment to environmental stewardship, animal care and community involvement.

Veldkamp Farms is the tenth Minnesota pork operation to receive this recognition since the award’s inception in 1995. No other state has been home to this many national environmental stewards. (View other award winners.)

The Veldkamps' swine facilities include three, 600-head nurseries; three, 1,200-head finishing barns; and a 2,400-head wean-to-finish barn. The barns are built over reinforced concrete manure storage pits. Along with other pork producing families, the Veldkamps are shareholders in two sow units managed by Pipestone System. These sow units provide the farm with regular supplies of healthy weaned pigs.

In 1993 the Veldkamps were amongst the first shareholders in the Pipestone System. As shareholders, the pork producers retain their independence yet realize advantages such as economy of scale, and access to swine production and management experts.

The ‘nutrient cycle’ is extremely important to Veldkamp Farms’ pork production and farming practices. The nutrient-rich swine manure from the 16,500 market hogs they finish annually returns to the farmland as soil fertilizer. At the on-farm feed mill, their corn and soybeans are converted into feed for their pigs. The pigs start the cycle again by generating locally-grown fertilizer for the crops.

The manure fertilizes part of the farm’s 1,250 acres of corn and soybeans. The Veldkamps’ ridge-till cropping system allows for summer manure application as a side dress to corn and soybean fields. Their fall manure application rates are derived from sampling the soil for its fertilizer needs and then matching it with nutrient tests from the manure.

In windy southwestern Minnesota, the ridge-till cropping system helps prevent crop yield losses by retaining soil moisture and by warding off soil erosion. It also saves on energy costs because of fewer equipment passes over the fields and less equipment wear.

The Pork Industry Environmental Steward Award selection committee members evaluate nominees on manure management practices, water and soil conservation, odor control and air quality strategies, farm aesthetics, neighbor relations, wildlife habitat promotion, environmental enhancements and an essay on environmental stewardship. All types and sizes of pork producers are eligible to apply for this annual award.

The award co-sponsors are National Hog Farmer magazine and the Pork Checkoff.

Additional 2008 recipients were Enterprise Nursery of Madrid, Neb., O’Neel Farms of Friend, Neb., and Oetting Farms of Concordia, Mo. The award winners will be recognized at the 2009 National Pork Industry Forum in Dallas, Texas.

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Jim and JoAnn Veldkamp at home on their Jasper farm.

Jim Veldkamp, Joe Buysse and Randy Baden in front of manure application equipment and a finishing barn. The Veldkamp's stress that Buysse and Baden are extremely important to the success of the farm.

When weaned pigs arrive to the farm, they are put in the nursery.

A finishing barn at Veldkamp Farms. In addition to many other jobs on the farm, JoAnn Veldkamp enjoys landscaping and yard care.

Previous Pork Industry Environmental Steward Award winners from Minnesota were:

2007

Mike Haupert of M & J Farms, Hadley

2006

David, Brian and Bob Braun of Braun Farms, Le Sueur

2005

Sandy and Ben Ludeman of Saratoga Pork, Tracy

2004

Dan and Midge Boettger of Three Generation Pork, New Richland

2003

Dr. Dick Nicolai and Sam Watkins of Nicolai Pork Producers, Inc., Hector

2000

Scott and Shelley Schwartz of Schwartz Farms, Garvin

1998

Peter and Paul Zimmerman, and Cliff Jes of Woodville Pork, Waseca

1996

Don Lafferty of Tru-Joy Farms, New York Mills

1995

Marlin and Wilda Pankratz of Mountain Lake

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