SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Tree buffers are just one of the ways pig farmers can display current best management practices to benefit the environment. As Earth Day approaches on April 22, the Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA) is making available another round of grants to continue their tree buffer program, which allows producers to develop an area of trees that are strategically placed to provide a wind break, recycle clean air and provide “curb appeal” to a farm operation.

“Every day is Earth Day to a pork producer,” said Jennifer Tirey, IPPA executive director, adding that Illinois pig farmers have planted over 3,700 trees across Illinois since the program began in 2016.

“We would like to see some new producers who are looking at planting tree buffers, and we have over $20,000 earmarked for the program this year. So we are hoping for more applications and getting more trees planted,” said Tirey. 

Past participants in the program have included pork producers from across the state of Illinois, as an interactive map posted at www.ilpork.com serves to illustrate. “We have been able to identify locations all across the state. The funds have been dispersed all across the state to pig farms, big and small. We’ve worked with a couple of systems that have had some of their stock or finishing barns in the program, we’ve worked with independent producers to help them, so it’s really been a huge range of producers who applied and were able to receive funding,” Tirey said. 

Darren Brown of Magnolia first planted trees under the program in 2017. He recently sent “five year challenge” photos to Tirey in appreciation of the tree buffer program’s benefits. “It is amazing to see how quickly the trees have grown. Darren graciously sent me some photos to share, which are on our website,” she said. 

Funding is intended for the purchase of trees and shrubs, as well as design and tree placement; tree installation costs are not covered under the grant. IPPA will provide up to $2,500 per producer for those whose applications are approved. 

Ted Funk, an environmental engineer for IPPA funded in part by the Illinois Soybean Association Checkoff Program, is available to consult with farmers on the placement of the buffers. A local Extension educator may also be engaged to suggest the best types of trees for the desired location. The group effort helps ensure the farmer has all the tools needed to create a useful tree buffer.

“It’s exciting to work with pork producers who are committed to making their farms look great by using some strategic landscaping vegetation. I’m pleased to see the continuing interest of Illinois commodity groups in helping make healthy, attractive communities,” says Funk.

The return of the tree buffer program dovetails with the tenets of the National Pork Board’s renewed commitment to environmental sustainability and transparency announced in February. Farmers utilizing tree buffers will want to document their efforts in their annual On-Farm Sustainability Report, introduced by the National Pork Board in 2021.

“We are trying to get more farmers engaged in registering their acres. In the first report (Illinois) had only 5,000 acres, and they found we had saved over $175,000 in manure usage over commercial fertilizer during 2020. The numbers can only continue to get better as we get more farmers enrolled in this on-farm sustainability project,” Tirey said.  

IPPA is encouraging farmers to participate in the NPB On-Farm Sustainability Report because “if you’re not participating in the process, we cannot educate consumers,” according to Tirey. 

“Our producers are doing such a great job in doing what they do 365 days of the year, but we have to hold our heads up and be part of the conversation, and we have to be counted. If they don’t give us their information, then we cannot count it. If we are part of the conversation, then we are being proactive instead of reactive.”

The sustainability reports take only around an hour or two to complete, noted Gary Asay, an Osco, Illinois pig farmer who had a leading role in developing the tenets of the NPB program before his maximum six-year term on the board expired last year.

 “On my farm we have used cover crops for over 12 years now. We’ve been continuous no-till for longer than that. We’re using manure to spread over (crop acreage) and trying to reduce any synthetic nitrogen that goes on this crop ground. We also have solar panels that went up in 2017,” said Asay, who charted his farm’s manure, electricity and water usage, crop varieties, crop yields and utilization of cover crops and conservation tillage for the first NPB On-Farm Sustainability Report. Asay’s data was aggregated with other participants in Illinois and the U.S. and published in the NPB’s first sustainability report.

For more information or to apply for the IPPA Tree Buffer program, visit www.ilpork.com/farmers-care/funding-opportunities/tree-buffer-program. 

To read the 2021 NPB Pork Industry Sustainability Report, visit

https://www.porkcdn.com/sites/porkcheckoff/assets/files/2244_Final.pdf.