Leopold Center - Hoops prove their worth


Animal behaviorist Don Lay (left) and Anna Johnson from the National Pork Board listen to questions during a breakout session.


Joe Hynek (right), a mechanical engineering graduate student at Iowa State University, demonstrates a new computer application that models the flow of air and gas concentrations inside a hoop building. Glasses help the viewers see the projected image in three dimensions.

After more than a decade of research at Iowa State University, the use of hoop barns for hog production appears to meet sustainable agriculture’s triple bottom line of being economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound.

It is estimated that more than 3,000 hooped buildings are now being used on Iowa farms for livestock housing, mostly hogs, although research has shown they’re also appropriate for beef and dairy cattle, horses, sheep, ostrich and emu, as well as storing hay, grain and machinery.

The benefits and challenges of using hoop barns and deep-bedded systems for livestock production were discussed during a national conference and international symposium September 14-15 in Ames. The Leopold Center was a major sponsor of the conference with the ISU College of Agriculture, Iowa State University Extension, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Pork Board, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Pork Producers Association and Iowa Pork Industry Center.

The conference attracted 232 people from 10 countries interested in learning about this popular alternative system noted for its low capital cost, competitive returns, and versatility. Sixty researchers from Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Sweden, Morocco, Korea and across the United States attended the second-day symposium.

“We’re looking for a low-cost way to raise pork because it’s getting to be just too expensive for consumers,” said Allan Simonsson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He said Sweden produces about 80 percent of the pork that’s consumed there, with consumption levels about twice that of beef.

Eddie Pitzer, who works for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, said he also came to the conference to learn more about low-cost alternatives for his state’s pork producers. “We’re interested in the niche markets, and to offer something for small producers who aren’t interested in integration,” he said.

Former ISU sociology professor Clare Hinrichs, now at Pennsylvania State University, encouraged participants to consider more than the economic and commercial aspects of hoop barns. In her research, some of it funded by the Leopold Center, she said producers who use hoops are spontaneously identifying some of the same animal welfare issues noted by consumers.

“Most hoop producers identify with the animal welfare benefits of this system and get personal satisfaction from it,” she said. “I encourage you to anticipate the growing importance of animal welfare in consumer decisions about meat purchases and consumption.”

Another speaker addressed the animal welfare issue directly. Don Lay heads the USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s Livestock Behavior Research Unit at West Lafayette, Indiana, and conducted some of the early hoops research at ISU. In his observations of 120 pigs, those raised in hoops had less abnormal behavior, lower concentrations of plasma cortisol (a measure of stress), fewer leg injuries and more play behavior than those raised in conventional structures.

Lay said more research needs to be done because the differences could be attributed to numerous factors including the type of bedding used, pig density or temperature differences. “There are thousands of variables that are different in these systems and we need to look at all of their effects on animal welfare,” he said.

John Maltman, a swine specialist for Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives in Canada, said hoop barns have been used at one farm in Manitoba for 17 years, with few modifications. Tests showed that only the top 18 inches of clay soil under the hoops had a limited amount of phosphorous, and there was very little movement of nitrogen deeper into the soil.

The first Iowa research on hoops was conducted in 1993 by Mark Honeyman and funded by a Leopold Center grant. In 1997, the Center brought together researchers from several colleges and departments to work on an Alternative Swine Production Systems Initiative, which became known as the Hoop Group.

The Center provided primary funding for the Hoop Group from 1997 through 2002. Additional support came from the Iowa Pork Producers Association and the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. In 2002, Center staff worked with Senator Tom Harkin to obtain the first of three special USDA grants that allowed the team to continue its work.

The latest USDA grant provided funds for the national conference and international symposium and development of a producer manual. Published by the MidWest Plan Service at ISU, the Hoops Manual includes publications on hoop barns for grow-finish swine, gestating swine, cold-weather farrowing, beef cattle, dairy cattle, and other multiple uses.

View presentations from the conference and symposium