Pork producers planting habitat for monarchs

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My name is Ben Crawford and we're here

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in Hamilton County and my wife and I are

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pork producers here in Hamilton County

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and Hardin County and I graduated from

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Iowa State with my bachelor's in 2007

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and a master's in 2009 and I'm currently

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employed as an Environmental Services

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Director for Prestage farms of Iowa and

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my wife is a technical services

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veterinarian for Merck Animal Health so

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we're both we both work in the swine

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industry. For our contract sites, my wife

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and I have 7,500 finishing spaces we

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have a 2,500 head finishing site in

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Hamilton County and a 5,000 head

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finishing site in Hardin County. I got

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started with this project with the Iowa

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Pork Producers Association because I'm

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on the Environmental Committee there and

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so the project was brought to us so that

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was my first introduction to it. I'll say

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it first there was a little hesitation

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and the project itself, you know, it

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wasn't something we typically see and so

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there was a little hesitation at first

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with it but then once we looked at the

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details more and realized what a benefit

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it could be we decided to go through

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with it and I think it's been a very

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good thing.

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The project itself it was a three year

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project and it took a little time to get

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the plots established but now that the

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plots have established, as you can see

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behind me, I think it adds a lot of

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aesthetic beauty to the sites

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themselves. Another benefit that I see is

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you have less area to maintain and mow

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every week so if there's a big benefit

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for that as well. One thing that I kept

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having to emphasize throughout this

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project was patience because when we

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first started this project I think a lot

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of people in our company and a lot of

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producers in general thought that, okay,

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well we'll spray and kill any

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grass or weeds that are on the plot that

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we're gonna kinda seed to the monarch

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blend and, you know, within a year it's

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gonna be flowers and everything is gonna

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look nice and pretty and and it's gonna

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establish right away. But come to find

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out, it really takes several years to get

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a good plot established and so that's

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one thing I kept preaching to people in

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our company is just have some patience

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with it. So, I know, in year one

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it just kind of looked like a weed patch

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and everyone was, you know, thinking well

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maybe this wasn't such a good idea maybe

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we should tear the thing out and just

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seed it back down to grass. You know, it's

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an eyesore when people drive by so we

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just let it go. Year two looked a little

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better and then now, year three, you can

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really see the benefits of it and the

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patience has paid off, I think. So I think

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the opportunity to scale up some of

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these projects -- I think there's a lot of

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opportunity with that. The biggest thing

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we had to get over when we were first

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establishing these plots is there was a

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lot of concerns from producers that the

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thought this would be a biosecurity

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hazard because of rodents and if you're

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putting some of these tall grass areas

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really close to the barns and you're

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gonna have rats and mice and an extra

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 habitat for those little critters.

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I don't really see much concern with

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that as long as we have the plot set

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back from the barn, at least we have a

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little bit of buffer area. I don't think

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there's a big problem with that and then

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if you're following a regular baiting

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protocol like you would at any site I

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really don't see much concern with it.

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I think there's a lot of benefit just

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because you see all these hog sites

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around the state and there's a lot of

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open area. You know, most of these sites are

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gonna be anywhere from 3 to 5 acres in

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size and most of it is just grass area

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that's being mowed but I think there'd

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be a lot of them that would be

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interested in doing a project like this

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