In Clay Center, Nebraska, Walter Traudt has been farming for 25 years. Corn and soybeans are his crops of choice, but nine years ago he went on the lookout for ways to expand his operation. Buying more ground was very expensive, but his banker brought another opportunity to his attention, one that would allow him to take four of the acres he already owned and convert them to a hog facility.

Now his family’s operation finishes 3,600 pigs every six months. Walt considers the extra workload of a hog farmer to be the purest form of sweat equity, and he has not found himself overburdened by the additional obligations of being a hog farmer.

“That’s the great thing about being a contract grower,” Walt said. “I’m not sitting here trying to buy more pigs, or trying to time when they go to market, when they bring in new ones; we’re just managing the growth of a weaned pig to a market pig. (...) We just have to take care of those pigs and help them in that journey from nursery pig to a market pig.”

The pigs have also brought a new component for his crop operation: manure production. While skeptical at first, Walt decided to take the leap and switched to manure as the priority fertilizer for his operation to reduce his reliance on commercial fertilizer and his input costs. Fortunately, the Traudt farm has enough acres to use the manure the pigs produce; Walt estimated that he could apply 90-100% of what is produced on his own fields each year.

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