Logan Tesch, Activate Participant
The first day of Activate: Session 5 from California was full of experiences. Our morning began at Ottenwalter Show Pigs in Colusa, California. Russell Pedrett gave us a tour of the farm and explained some of the unique ideas they use to stay relevant in the show pig industry. The farm currently has around 160 sows, utilizing Matrix to synchronize the groups of sows together. Pedrett previously traveled across the country and the Midwest to bring pigs to sales, but has found the local market and their online sale to be the most successful. Online sales happen four times a year in their on-farm sale arena, with banners of previous Ottenwalter winners draped around the barn.
Fostering the youth is important for Pedrett and he has pivoted the business to helping the next generation of showmen. The team on the farm helps train pigs to walk, and also tries to have someone at each of the county fairs in the area to help those who have purchased an Ottenwalter pig make sure they are successful in the ring.
Residing in California, Ottenwalter is a Prop 12 compliant operation and makes sure all the documentation is available for the showmen after their pig leaves the farm.
Pedrett stays busy between making appearances at shows, lining up sales of show pigs, and making breeding selections. But he finds a lot of joy in helping the next generation find a passion for pigs!
After Ottenwalter, we made the drive south to the Sun Valley Rice mill. Carissa Lee, who has spent decades in the rice industry, provided a presentation of the rice industry in California. There are about 500,000 acres of rice in a 100 mile radius of the plant that supplies the mill. They specifically specialize in medium grain rice that is perfect for sushi because of its ability to stick together.
From the fields, the rice is harvested by farmers and then hauled to various warehouses for storage, very similar to an elevator, where they monitor moisture and make sure it is safely stored for a period of time. The mill then coordinates with the warehouses to determine how many loads they need for each day of production. The plant typically goes through 100 semi loads of rice a day!
Once the rice is at the mill, it goes through a series of cleaners, shakers and grinders to sort out any foreign material and then grind the shell and bran off the rice grain to get to the white rice we all eat! The final product is then packaged into bags or totes to be shipped to consumers predominantly domestically, but also to international markets.
Fun fact: white rice and brown rice can come from the same plant. The only difference is that brown rice still has the bran on the rice seed.
After lunch at In-N-Out Burger, we toured the Swine Unit at UC Davis. The facility was built in 2001, and while having similar amenities to the barns we know, there were a few unique differences. The farm utilizes a 28-day batch farrowing system through two 10-head farrowing rooms, matched with two nursery rooms across the hall. Each of these four rooms utilizes a separate central air system to control the temperature in the rooms compared to heaters and fans we see in Minnesota.
The finishing and gestation barn was one long building attached to the farrowing house. Since California does not deal with freezing temperatures, the barn is naturally ventilated, and they utilize concrete for all of the pen walls in the barn. “Flush lanes” with water are used to clean manure from the back of the pens every day.
GESTAL self feeder systems have been recently installed to allow for more nutrition research to be done on the farm. They also utilize different pen gestation systems, as they are also Prop 12 compliant. The farm has been transitioning to Topigs Norsvin genetics, and retains gilts from the sows they farrow to repopulate the herd.
After our tour of the barn, we sat down to hear from Dr. Frank Mitloehner about the work UC Davis has done in relation to animal agriculture and its environmental impact. For over two decades, Dr. Mitloehner has researched greenhouse gas emissions, carbon footprints, and production efficiencies to provide real data for policy makers across the globe.
We capped off the evening at Mulvaney’s B&L in downtown Sacramento. The menu was specifically prepared for the Activate group, and included a hotdish for the Midwesterners, and various pork dishes. Jake Parnell joined us from Cattlemen’s Livestock Market, a livestock auction barn located in Galt, California. He shared his previous experience in politics and how it has impacted his engagement with policy for farmers and ranchers today. Being able to see different parts of agriculture firsthand, meet people with different perspectives, and connect those experiences back to the pork industry has made this trip one I will not forget.
