Iowa farm opens swank swine facility; cuts odor by 80%

A Chickasaw County, Iowa, farm may have just built the first five-star facility for pigs.

Located near Lawler, the new finishing barn at Reicks View Farms is equipped with the most advanced odor reduction technology, a state-of-the-art air scrubber and air filtration system, the latest feed delivery system, climate control features, and more. To facilitate good ventilation, all air will come through a cool cell system, using evaporation to give the pigs the ideal growing environment.

According to an Iowa Pork Producers Association release, Jerico Construction, a division of Reicks View Farms, designed the building and worked closely with Iowa State University researchers on testing protocol.

“We worked with ISU to achieve an approved national average score of 52 percent odor reduction,” said designer Justin Haught. “Tests revealed that odor was reduced by at least 80 percent up to 1,000 feet from the barn.”The 2,400-head hog building is completely filtered and has top-down ventilation.“The cool cell will lower the temperature in the barn to reduce electric consumption,” said owner Dale Reicks. “We’re also scrubbing the air leaving the barn, which is basically a cool cell pad that catches the dust exiting through the fans. We’ll achieve an average 50 percent reduction in ammonia and odor emissions.”

Reicks View Farms modeled the barn after those seen by Dale in Belgium in 2000 and Germany in 2012.

The new concentrated animal feeding operation will serve as a nursery for the Reicks View Farms farrow-to-finish swine production system, which markets 600,000 head of hogs a year. The Reicks family also raises 10,000 acres of corn.