Billionaires in Duel Over a Hog Farm
By KEITH SCHNEIDER, Special to The New York Times
Published: Tuesday, November 28, 1989
A battle among billionaires has broken out along the South Platte River here at the western edge of the Great Plains, where the nation's largest hog farm is being built.
The $50 million complex of gleaming metal buildings, being erected by National Hog Farms Inc., is to produce 300,000 hogs a year when it is completed in 1992.
Opposing the hog farm, which is owned by the Bass brothers of Fort Worth, Tex., is Philip Anschutz, owner of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, and Peter H. Coors of the brewing family. Both men own ranches in the area and they say the urine and feces from the farm will pollute underground water and foul the South Platte River. Company Facing Suits
The two men are suing National Hog Farms in State District Court, running full-page advertisements in The Greeley Tribune and have financed two small citizen's groups. Both men have declined, through spokesmen, to discuss the fight.
Nearly obscured by the people involved are a number of other issues. Many groups fear that as technology allows more animals to be kept on immense farms, competition will decrease and the quality of beef, pork and chicken will decline even as prices rise.
National Hog Farms, a subsidiary of the Kansas City-based swine and cattle company, National Farms Inc., insists there is no evidence to support such concerns. William J. O'Hare, the manager of the hog farm at issue, said he was taking advantage of its isolation to raise hogs without feeding them grain laced with antibiotics and other drugs, a common practice on Middle Western family hog farms.
''This is a brand new, modern facility that could set new trends in the industry,'' Mr. O'Hare said of the farm, situated on 25,500 acres and 20 miles east of Greeley, near Kersey. ''We fully intend not to use drugs in these animals if we don't have to.''
Nonetheless, opponents are suspicious of Mr. O'Hare and National Farms. The company has run into problems throughout the 1980's in controlling livestock waste in Holt County, Neb., where National Farms owns three operations that together produce as many pigs as the new Colorado farm will. Complaints on Odors and Animals
Holt County residents also complained about the number of animals that died and the manner used to dispose of the carcasses.
Similar concerns have now arisen in Colorado. Over the weekend, the environmental group Protect Our Water, formed in Greeley in October and financed by Mr. Anschutz, made public photographs of dead pigs beside an irrigation canal parallel to the South Platte River along the hog farm's southern boundary. The group asserted that the bloated carcasses were from the hog farm.
''This is exactly the thing that we are worried about,'' said James A. Monaghan, a Denver-based public relations expert hired by Mr. Anschutz to advise Protect Our Water. ''It's the exact opposite of what they're portraying.''
Mr. O'Hare confirmed that carcasses had been left by the canal. ''We've asked the removal company to pick them up daily and we've had troubled getting this scheduled,'' he said.
The heat and acerbity of the fight have suprised most residents of Weld County, where some of the country's largest cattle-feed yards and a beef slaughterhouse are situated. The annual income from agriculture, nearly $900 million, is greater than all but a handful of counties in California, Texas and Florida. Opposition Developed Quickly
When it arrived in Weld County in June 1988, National Farms believed the farm would easily slip into a landscape where American agriculture had already attained a level of technical sophistication, size and profitability matched in few other regions.
But in six months opposition developed among several Weld County residents who formed the Platte River Environmental Conservation Organization, another opposition group financed by Mr. Anschutz.
''We'd love to shut it down,'' said Tim Erickson, a 38-year-old farmer from Fort Lupton, 20 miles south of Greeley, who is the group's spokesman. ''These huge operations, helped by tax breaks and loopholes, will drive the family farmer out of business.''
The recent history of the hog industry reflects what is occurring in American agriculture, said Mr. Erickson. About 300,000 farms, half the number of hog farms that existed in 1965, raise the 90 million hogs consumed in the United States each year. At least 15 percent of the $9 billion annual market for hogs is controlled by about 25 corporate producers, studies by Iowa State University and the University of Missouri show.
Mr. Erickson's group was joined by Mr. Coors in a lawsuit in April that questioned the hog farm's ability to dispose of its wastes safely. The suit, against Weld County, National Hog Farms and the state, sought to halt construction and overturn the county's decision to grant the company a building permit. National Farms has argued that neither Weld County nor the state required the hog farm to gain a disposal permit because farms are exempted from water quality control laws in Colorado.
In July, a State District Court judge ruled that the procedures followed by the county were proper and the building permit was valid. Other sections of the suit are still to be heard. Seeking New Treatment Plant
''If the water is polluted it will affect the cattle and it will affect the river from a wildlife standpoint,'' said J. Robert Stovell, the manager of Eagle's Nest Ranch, a 32,000-acre cattle ranch and hunting preserve downstream from Mr. Anschutz's hog farm.
Mr. Stovell, a founding member of Protect Our Water, wants National Farms to apply the same treatments to its waste water that a city would use for municipal wastes. The group's attorneys wrote a detailed petition urging the passage of an ordinance requiring secondary treatment of wastes from ''swine production facilities in the county designed to hold more than 25,000 animals.''
More than 2,000 county voters have signed the petition; 2,511 confirmed signatures are needed for the county commissioners either to pass the ordinance or put it on the ballot.
Mr. O'Hare said during a tour of the farm earlier this month that the petition should not alter the company's plans. Mr. O'Hare said the hog farm has the most elaborate and effective waste-water treatment system of any livestock farm in the country. Waste water, he said, would be treated by one system that removes the solids and another that aerates the effluent to reduce the smell. Slightly more than two million gallons of effluent will then be sprayed every day through circular sprinklers to irrigate and fertilize thousands of acres of pasture.
''Our engineers tell us this system is as effective or more effective than secondary treatment,'' said Mr. O'Hare. ''The amount of effluent we apply through the sprinklers will have no effect on the groundwater or the river.''
Photo of William J. O'Hare, manager of the hog-rasing complex (NYT/Bruce McAllister); map of Colorado showing location of the site of the hog farm (NYT)
Correction: November 30, 1989, Thursday, Late Edition - Final Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about a dispute over a huge hog farm being built in Colorado misstated the holdings of Philip Anschutz, an opponent of the development. He owns the Eagle's Nest ranch; he does not own a hog farm.
A version of this article appeared in print on Tuesday, November 28, 1989, on section A page 16 of the New York edition.
By KEITH SCHNEIDER, Special to The New York Times
Published: Tuesday, November 28, 1989
A battle among billionaires has broken out along the South Platte River here at the western edge of the Great Plains, where the nation's largest hog farm is being built.
The $50 million complex of gleaming metal buildings, being erected by National Hog Farms Inc., is to produce 300,000 hogs a year when it is completed in 1992.
Opposing the hog farm, which is owned by the Bass brothers of Fort Worth, Tex., is Philip Anschutz, owner of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, and Peter H. Coors of the brewing family. Both men own ranches in the area and they say the urine and feces from the farm will pollute underground water and foul the South Platte River. Company Facing Suits
The two men are suing National Hog Farms in State District Court, running full-page advertisements in The Greeley Tribune and have financed two small citizen's groups. Both men have declined, through spokesmen, to discuss the fight.
Nearly obscured by the people involved are a number of other issues. Many groups fear that as technology allows more animals to be kept on immense farms, competition will decrease and the quality of beef, pork and chicken will decline even as prices rise.
National Hog Farms, a subsidiary of the Kansas City-based swine and cattle company, National Farms Inc., insists there is no evidence to support such concerns. William J. O'Hare, the manager of the hog farm at issue, said he was taking advantage of its isolation to raise hogs without feeding them grain laced with antibiotics and other drugs, a common practice on Middle Western family hog farms.
''This is a brand new, modern facility that could set new trends in the industry,'' Mr. O'Hare said of the farm, situated on 25,500 acres and 20 miles east of Greeley, near Kersey. ''We fully intend not to use drugs in these animals if we don't have to.''
Nonetheless, opponents are suspicious of Mr. O'Hare and National Farms. The company has run into problems throughout the 1980's in controlling livestock waste in Holt County, Neb., where National Farms owns three operations that together produce as many pigs as the new Colorado farm will. Complaints on Odors and Animals
Holt County residents also complained about the number of animals that died and the manner used to dispose of the carcasses.
Similar concerns have now arisen in Colorado. Over the weekend, the environmental group Protect Our Water, formed in Greeley in October and financed by Mr. Anschutz, made public photographs of dead pigs beside an irrigation canal parallel to the South Platte River along the hog farm's southern boundary. The group asserted that the bloated carcasses were from the hog farm.
''This is exactly the thing that we are worried about,'' said James A. Monaghan, a Denver-based public relations expert hired by Mr. Anschutz to advise Protect Our Water. ''It's the exact opposite of what they're portraying.''
Mr. O'Hare confirmed that carcasses had been left by the canal. ''We've asked the removal company to pick them up daily and we've had troubled getting this scheduled,'' he said.
The heat and acerbity of the fight have suprised most residents of Weld County, where some of the country's largest cattle-feed yards and a beef slaughterhouse are situated. The annual income from agriculture, nearly $900 million, is greater than all but a handful of counties in California, Texas and Florida. Opposition Developed Quickly
When it arrived in Weld County in June 1988, National Farms believed the farm would easily slip into a landscape where American agriculture had already attained a level of technical sophistication, size and profitability matched in few other regions.
But in six months opposition developed among several Weld County residents who formed the Platte River Environmental Conservation Organization, another opposition group financed by Mr. Anschutz.
''We'd love to shut it down,'' said Tim Erickson, a 38-year-old farmer from Fort Lupton, 20 miles south of Greeley, who is the group's spokesman. ''These huge operations, helped by tax breaks and loopholes, will drive the family farmer out of business.''
The recent history of the hog industry reflects what is occurring in American agriculture, said Mr. Erickson. About 300,000 farms, half the number of hog farms that existed in 1965, raise the 90 million hogs consumed in the United States each year. At least 15 percent of the $9 billion annual market for hogs is controlled by about 25 corporate producers, studies by Iowa State University and the University of Missouri show.
Mr. Erickson's group was joined by Mr. Coors in a lawsuit in April that questioned the hog farm's ability to dispose of its wastes safely. The suit, against Weld County, National Hog Farms and the state, sought to halt construction and overturn the county's decision to grant the company a building permit. National Farms has argued that neither Weld County nor the state required the hog farm to gain a disposal permit because farms are exempted from water quality control laws in Colorado.
In July, a State District Court judge ruled that the procedures followed by the county were proper and the building permit was valid. Other sections of the suit are still to be heard. Seeking New Treatment Plant
''If the water is polluted it will affect the cattle and it will affect the river from a wildlife standpoint,'' said J. Robert Stovell, the manager of Eagle's Nest Ranch, a 32,000-acre cattle ranch and hunting preserve downstream from Mr. Anschutz's hog farm.
Mr. Stovell, a founding member of Protect Our Water, wants National Farms to apply the same treatments to its waste water that a city would use for municipal wastes. The group's attorneys wrote a detailed petition urging the passage of an ordinance requiring secondary treatment of wastes from ''swine production facilities in the county designed to hold more than 25,000 animals.''
More than 2,000 county voters have signed the petition; 2,511 confirmed signatures are needed for the county commissioners either to pass the ordinance or put it on the ballot.
Mr. O'Hare said during a tour of the farm earlier this month that the petition should not alter the company's plans. Mr. O'Hare said the hog farm has the most elaborate and effective waste-water treatment system of any livestock farm in the country. Waste water, he said, would be treated by one system that removes the solids and another that aerates the effluent to reduce the smell. Slightly more than two million gallons of effluent will then be sprayed every day through circular sprinklers to irrigate and fertilize thousands of acres of pasture.
''Our engineers tell us this system is as effective or more effective than secondary treatment,'' said Mr. O'Hare. ''The amount of effluent we apply through the sprinklers will have no effect on the groundwater or the river.''
Photo of William J. O'Hare, manager of the hog-rasing complex (NYT/Bruce McAllister); map of Colorado showing location of the site of the hog farm (NYT)
Correction: November 30, 1989, Thursday, Late Edition - Final Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about a dispute over a huge hog farm being built in Colorado misstated the holdings of Philip Anschutz, an opponent of the development. He owns the Eagle's Nest ranch; he does not own a hog farm.
A version of this article appeared in print on Tuesday, November 28, 1989, on section A page 16 of the New York edition.
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