From WATTAgNet:
Seaboard Foods has registered its intention to open a new hog finishing operation, Ladder Creek West, in Greeley County, Kansas. If approved, it would make Seaboard’s second hog finishing company in the county on the Colorado border.
The operation is expected to have 110 buildings and would contain about 132,000 pigs. A filing with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) states that the waste from the operation would go into a lagoon for treatment, then be spread on fields.
KDHE has yet to approve the facility. The company, based in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, will need to submit an application that includes engineering plans and nutrient management plans.
If the project is approved, Seaboard would be able to house about 330,000 between the two facilities in Greeley County. Seaboard’s other finishing facility, which opened in 2010, is in the process of an expansion.
Jack Arnold, a supervisor for Greeley County, said the new project would have both supporters and opponents in the county that is home to about 1,300 people. Supporters seem to favor the proposed project because of its job creating potential and the additional tax revenue it would bring in. Opponents include other farmers in the area, who are concerned about having to compete with Seaboard for water usage.
