Co-op plans farrowing facility in Nelson County

NORTH DAKOTA - A group of farmers is proposing a 5,000-sow farrowing facility north of Mapes, N.D.
calendar icon 28 April 2006
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Nelson County Pigs Cooperative has been in the county planning and zoning commission in the past several months.

Permit applications were filed in March with the county and state. Construction would start whenever permits are completed, possibly as early as midsummer.

Scott Nelson, 42, who currently operates a 1,200-head pig nursery, said the proposed site also will be located on his farmland. It is about two miles north and east of Mapes, which is about 35 miles east of Devils Lake.

Nelson is on the interim board for the cooperative, which would produce pigs that would be finished at co-op members' farms in North Dakota, Minnesota and possibly Iowa. There are about 10 members of the cooperative.

The new cooperative will hire a professional manager and will employ 18 to 20 people, providing a payroll of some $650,000 per year. "For Nelson County, that's pretty substantial," Nelson said.

A cost estimate on the project is in excess of $6 million.

Source: Grand Forks Herald
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