Conservation Practices in Hog Production

September 28, 2022

ARTICLE

Environmental stewardship is one of the core focus areas of the Smithfield sustainability strategy, seeking bold and innovative ways to do good for the environment. The promotion of conservation practices in hog production is central in its stewardship approach.

Supporting climate-smart crop production for animal feed

Smithfield has created a reduced-cost seed program to encourage farmers to grow non-GMO soybeans between crop seasons to enhance soil health and nutrients. The winter wheat program provides discounted seed to farmers, increasing locally grown, cost-effective access to wheat for hog feed. Smithfield has also expanded its storage capability to enable the company to purchase grain early in the harvest season at its peak quality. This arrangement is mutually beneficial for Smithfield and its farmers, who receive higher prices for their crops and do not have to worry about crop loss during hurricane season.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Smithfield recycles hog manure produced on company-owned farms using anaerobic lagoons to store and treat the manure, then apply it as fertilizer to grow crops like corn, soybeans and certain grasses. This practice uses environmentally sound methods that follow local agricultural best practices and adhere to all regulatory requirements.

Smithfield’s Monarch Bioenergy partnership with Roeslein Alternative Energy and TPG Rise Climate, captures methane from hog manure on nearly all of its company-owned finishing farms in northern Missouri and converts it into clean energy, generating carbon-negative RNG at a rate of approximately 800,000 dekatherms annually. Its Align Renewable Natural Gas joint venture with Dominion Energy is also producing RNG from a network of 26 of its contract hog farms in Utah. Building on this success, Smithfield is developing similar projects in North Carolina, Arizona and Virginia.

Through a partnership with Anuvia™ Plant Nutrients, Smithfield is producing sustainable fertilizer from renewable biological materials from hog farm manure treatment systems. Fertilizer produced through this partnership utilizes remnant solids that accumulate at the bottom of Smithfield’s anaerobic lagoons and basins, which store and treat hog manure on farms. This results in commercial-grade fertilizer that is higher in nutrient concentration than the organic materials in their original form. The fertilizer produced allows farmers to better manage nutrient ratios and use less fertilizer overall. Because Anuvia’s products contain organic matter, their nutrient release is more controlled, resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Smithfield is continuing to explore other methods to recycle manure and benefit the environment.

Butterfly Benefits

Over the last century, the biodiversity of native prairie lands has been lost, and many of the remaining grasslands have been invaded by non-native grasses not suitable for butterflies and other pollinators. Monarch butterfly populations have dropped approximately 95% since the 1980s and are in danger of being listed as a threatened species.

The Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange is a partnership between Smithfield Foods, Environmental Defense Fund and Roeslein Alternative Energy to restore 1.5 million acres of prime breeding and nectaring habitat along butterfly migration routes. In 2018, we contributed funding to plant native milkweed and wildflower species, which are monarch-friendly, on 1,000 acres of land near our hog farms in northern Missouri.

Prairies also serve to help hold water and nitrogen in the soil and reduce potential waste. If harvested at the proper time, prairies create biomass for methane generation, used to produce biogas. Smithfield is working to identify new conservation opportunities to continue its industry leadership in environmental responsibility.