Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 7/21/10

Smithfield Foods-owned Premium Standard Farms filed a plan Thursday with the Circuit Court of Jackson County to implement over the next two years the final phase of  the company’s odor management plan at its pig farms in northwest Missouri.
The company said it will install state-of-the-art barn scrapers at seven remaining Premium Standard Farms no later than July 31, 2012, to further reduce barn odors.
Over the past 10 years, Premium Standard Farms has worked with the court-appointed Management Advisory Team to develop new next generation technology to reduce odor and address other environmental issues associated with its hog operations.
The efforts have been pursuant to two consent judgments -- one in 1999 and another in 2004 -- that were approved by the court and have spanned the last decade. The 2004 consent judgment is set to expire on July 31, 2010.
"As we approach the end of those agreements, we are requesting the court to approve the implementation schedule for the last pieces of Next Generation Technology," said Bill Homann, president of Premium Standard Farms, in a statement.  "Although we have already spent about $40 million implementing improved environmental technologies, all of which exceed State and Federal law requirements, we are fully committed to seeing this effort through to the end."
The final technologies to be implemented -- barn scrapers and the sustainable technology system -- were approved by the Management Advisory Team in late April. Homann said many of these solutions are first-of-their-kind, requiring significant research and development and months of testing, which delayed implementation until now.
The Management Advisory Team had identified three sources of odor that needed to be addressed: lagoons, land application and barns.
"We have designed and installed covers on our lagoons and we now have in place some of the most advanced land application technologies, equipment and practices in the U.S.," Homann said. "These practices have substantially reduced the amount of odor from the lagoons and land application."
Premium Standard Farms employs about 1,100 workers on farms in Missouri.

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