Agricultural News
B&B Swine Win 2013 Oklahoma Environmental Steward Award at Oklahoma Pork Congress
Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:49:17 CDT
Safeguarding natural resources is one of the ethical principles the pork farmers strive toward each and every day. Those ethical principles provide the pillars of the industry.
Brent and Brandi Heard exemplify the commitment at B & B Swine, Inc. and the Oklahoma Pork Council is pleased to name their farm the recipient of the 2013 Oklahoma Environmental Steward Award. The picture here shows Brent and Brandi receiving the award from Blayne Arthur, Associate Commissioner of Okla. Department of Agriculture.
The Heards run a 600-sow breeding, gestation, and farrowing farm located near Paden, Okla. The farm sits on approximately 40 acres of land which teems with wildlife.
The Heard's farm is comprised of three barns - breeding, gestation and lactation - which are all scrubbed weekly. Each barn sits atop a pit which leads out to the shallow, earthen waste storage basin. They use recycled water to clean the pits, showing their commitment to the conservation of water.
When it comes time to lower the amount of effluent in the waste storage basin, they use a pond mill to agitate the waste and make it travel through their pipes more easily. Once in the pipes, the effluent is pumped onto Bermuda grass hay fields to provide nutrients back into the soil.
A young, married couple, the Heards grew up living in the area where they now own the farm. It is very important to them to take care of the land, not only for their own future but also to be good neighbors.
"Being a good neighbor is always important," Brandi said. "I have grown up, born and raised in the town of Paden - some of our neighbors we have known since we were little. We moved out to the farm in September and now we are the closest neighbor to the farm."
Brent and Brandi are the farmers of the future. okPORK is excited about the way the future looks and is proud to name B & B Swine, Inc. the 2013 Oklahoma Environmental Steward.
"We try very hard because we are proud of where we come from. We're proud of living here and we want to do our best to make sure everything we do reflects our community and the way we do what we do."
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
