<b>By DOUG SCHMITZ<br>
Iowa Correspondent</b> </p><p>

DURANT, Iowa — Life as a full-time pork producer and high school wrestling coach can be quite a balancing act.<br>
Just ask Loren and Jeantee Keppy, who won the 2007 Pork Industry Environmental Stewards Award last November for their virtually odorless, 5,000-head hog-finishing farm in rural Durant, which is friendly to the environment – and to the neighbors.<br>
“Luckily, the sport of wrestling is in the winter months, and that’s when farming is at a slower pace,” Loren said. “Coaching our wrestling team gives me a chance to give back to the community and the sport. I also give the wrestlers a chance to experience a little farm work with loading hogs.”<br>
The National Pork Board (NPB) in Des Moines, Iowa, will present the Scott County couple the prestigious award at the 2008 National Pork Industry Forum, March 6-8 in St. Louis, Mo.<br>
“It’s a humbling honor,” said Loren about receiving the award. “It’s a family farm doing what we do on a daily basis, and to get recognized for it, was a surprise.<br>
“(It’s) showing our family and others that hard work, following the rules and taking that extra step can have its rewards,” added Loren, a generational producer who has been farming with Jeantee for 23 years.<br>
The Keppys are one of four United States farms selected to win the award, which is sponsored by the pork checkoff and National Hog Farmer magazine. The three other 2007 winners were Meadowlane Farms of Frankfort, Ind., M and J Farms of Hadley, Minn., and Seaboard Foods’ Wakefield Farms of Turpin, Okla.<br>
Loren and Jeantee Keppy are the first Iowans to receive the honor since 2002, when Frank and Jenny Hirschman and Don and Bobbi Hirschman of Hillcrest Pork, LLC in Kingsley, and Brent and Janis Gehling of Pig Oaks in Manning won the award.<br>
Lynn Harrison, NPB president and a member of the environmental stewards selection subcommittee – whose Elk Mound, Wis., farm received the award in 2002 – said each one of the 2007 award winners deals with “a different environment, different inputs, different types of soil and different regulations.<br>
“Pork producers, in general, make the choice to farm responsibly and to protect the natural resources, air, soil and water,” he said. “These producers in particular made the choice to share what they do with their neighbors, their communities and with us.”<br>
Established in 1984, Keppy Farms is a 1,920-space feed-to-finish hog operation and 900-acre grain farm that Loren and Jeantee run with their children: Kaylee, 19, and Jake, 16, both of whom are actively involved with 4-H and FFA swine projects.<br>
According to the NPB, Keppy Farms was evaluated on its manure management systems, water and soil conservation practices, odor control strategies, farm aesthetics and neighbor relations, wildlife habitat promotion, innovative ideas used to protect the environment and philosophy on environmental stewardship.
“The Keppy family has done a tremendous job caring for their animals, their land and working as part of the community,” said Cindy Cunningham, NPB assistant vice president of communications. “Loren and his family know the importance of all aspects of pork production and strive daily to do the right thing.
“They are stellar pork producers and they also represent thousands of other pork producers across the U.S. who are all committed to raising pork as part of a safe, wholesome food supply, while caring for their land and their animals.”<br>
In 2005, the Keppys started a hog-finishing contract with The Maschhoffs of Carlyle, Ill., which sends out a swine production specialist monthly to the farm to help with feed rations, marketing plans and herd health, Loren said.<br>
As part of creating an environmentally-friendly operation, manure from the pigs accumulates in eight-foot-deep pits under the barns until Loren empties the pit, allowing effluent to run into an earthen basin usually covered with a layer of oats or wheat straw that helps to reduce odor emissions.<br>
Then, once a year, he and a custom applicator apply the nutrients from the basin on the 900 acres of land where Loren plants Pioneer Hi-Bred seed corn and soybeans.<br>
“We grid sample our fields so we can accurately apply our nutrients,” he said. “We add feed additives and pit additives to help reduce phosphorus and odors. We (also) have a compost facility to process animal mortality.”<br>
To reduce the chance of spills when hauling the manure, Loren said he lays a soft hose to the fields within 1.75 miles of the basin and takes other precautions to avoid runoff and contamination of creeks in the vicinity.<br>
Moreover, to reduce odor, feed spills are cleaned promptly; dust is not allowed to accumulate on equipment, gating or fans; and production losses are picked up and composted in a concrete-lined and covered three-bay composting facility.<br>
“From farrowing in the pasture, processing and rounding up pigs are sure different from what we do today,” Loren said about the environmental changes he has made to his operation. “Finishing in outside lots and having to deal with extreme weather conditions is (also) a lot different from how efficient we are today.”