Farmers protect environment for future; Hog farm co-owner addresses questions

By JAMES L. WHITE jamesw@harrisondaily.com

Harrison Daily Times - Harrison, Arkansas  

Posted: Tuesday, May 30, 2017 7:00 am | Updated: 7:04 am, Tue May 30, 2017. 

Jason Henson, co-owner of C&H Hog Farm near Mt. Judea, recently spoke to the Harrison Kiwanis Club and reminded attendees that farmers are front-line environmentalists.

Club member Herb Lair introduced Henson, recognizing that he is a winner of the Farm Bureau Leadership Award and a ninth-generation Newton Countian. Lair said studies have shown cattle farming is actually more dangerous to the environment than hog farms.

Henson explained that C&H will have up to 2,500 pigs at a time. Once born, they stay for 19 days, then go to a finishing farm to be prepared for slaughter and the table.

They overdesigned the retention ponds where manure goes in order to avoid any seepage into ground water or possibly nearby Big Creek, a tributary of the Buffalo River, so as to exceed state standards.

C&H is permitted by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to spread that manure on hundreds of acres, mainly hay fields, Henson said, but only under strict regulation.

For instance, they must analyze nutrients in manure and the soil where it will be applied before application. They will spread a tenth of an inch of liquid manure on a field, which immediately begins to bond with the soil, while dry chemical fertilizer must have rain to activate it.

Henson said other farmers don’t meet the same environmental scrutiny. In fact, when they first began the operation, ADEQ officials were on site every 10 days to monitor the operation, and even the federal Environmental Protection Agency inspected the farm — they remarked on its cleanliness.

All that is done to protect the Buffalo National River, which Henson and his cousins who own the farm have long considered an important resource.

“It’s where I was baptized,” Henson told Kiwanians.

In the end, Henson believes C&H’s record will be good for the future of agriculture when it’s proven that agri and the environment can successfully coexist. Farmers don’t have any intention of harming the ecosystems around them.

“We’re just not going to do it,” Henson said.

Club president Nita Cooper, also the Boone County Extension agent, thanked Henson and told the crowd that as consumers they should thank farmers for their work to make sure everyone can eat.

“Have his back,” Cooper said.