"Farming is changing, like it or not," Tom Weaver said. "And we are trying to figure out a way to keep producing livestock and be reliable, responsible neighbors."

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP)--A northern Iowa farmer and his sons have been given approval to build a hog confinement operation to house up to 4,500 animals.

It will be the first large-scale confinement project to be built in Cerro Gordo County in more than three years.

The county enacted a moratorium on new livestock operations in 2002 to keep corporate hog farm owners from building more large livestock confinement buildings, but the supervisors granted a variance to Tom Weaver and his sons, Cody and Cory.

Assistant County Attorney Greg Rosenbladt told the supervisors that the moratorium is "void and unenforceable."

"Farming is changing, like it or not," Tom Weaver said. "And we are trying to figure out a way to keep producing livestock and be reliable, responsible neighbors."

He said with his family operation, anyone with complaints don't need to call a corporate office, they can call him or his sons.

"We live right next to the hogs and you can call us," he said.

Weaver Partnership' applied for two 400-by-50-foot confinement buildings to be located about five miles east of Rockwell.

The county's health staff reviewed the application in March and recommended denial based on the moratorium, but Rosenbladt said Iowa law and an Iowa Supreme Court case in October, which overturned a similar ordinance in Worth County led him to conclude the county couldn't deny the permit based on health issues.

"The moratorium was intended to regulate large producers and corporate operators," supervisor Jay Urdahl said. "Mr. Weaver, a family farmer, unfortunately got caught in that net."

About 70 people attended a hearing and many spoke in favor of granting the permit.

"I am concerned that overregulating is pushing family farmers out and letting big corporations in," Douglas Caffrey, a Thornton grain and livestock producer, said. "Agriculture has come a long way from the days of farrowing out in the pasture in the mud and the blood," he said. "We need to put common sense into play here. I believe we are doing a much better job, today of raising our livestock."

County officials passed the moratorium in an effort to control where livestock operations are located.

"We were trying to look at placement, to protect people living in the country," said county health director Ron Osterholm. "From what I have seen today, there seems to be a change in attitude, a willingness to find alternative locations when possible."

Others voiced their opposition including Michelle Price, who said she will live within a mile of the proposed farm.

"I am not against agriculture. I grew up on a farm. I have an ag business degree and I worked in a hog lot during college. But I am concerned about our property value going down with a hog lot so close to my home," she said.

Ruth Ann Murphy said her four-acre family farm is also nearby.

"I am disappointed we cannot spend more time outdoors without the obnoxious smell we have sometimes," she said.

Supervisors said they understood both sides of the issue.

"But we need to strike a balance and allow someone that is a good steward, a family farmer to expand," Urdahl said.

Date: 5/25/05

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