Missouri county wants large hog farms gone

BROOKFIELD, Mo. -- The first Missouri county to adopt health laws controlling the size of livestock operations could now be the first to tell Premium Standard Farms Inc. to take its hogs and leave.

Commissioners of Linn County, upset by a 500,000-gallon spill of untreated hog waste that flowed into Locust Creek last month, demanded Thursday that Premium Standard remove all of its hogs from the county.

Linn County farmer Cleo Wyant has had a contract with PSF since 1997 to raise about 2,400 hogs on his farm near Linneus. The hogs are owned by Kansas City-based PSF.

In a letter mailed Thursday, the county commission said the agreement violates a state law restricting corporate farming to only three northern Missouri counties -- Putnam, Mercer and Sullivan.

The commissioners also said the operation violates the county's own health ordinance and constitutes a public nuisance.

Waste that flowed from Wyant's farm killed fish in Locust Creek, according to the letter from Charles F. Speer, an attorney from Overland Park, Kan., hired by Linn County.

"Many municipalities in Linn County access water from Locust Creek for drinking," Speer wrote in the letter sent to PSF and Wyant. "This is precisely the type of event Linn County intended to prevent by the enactment of its health ordinance."

Charlie Arnot, spokesman for Premium Standard, confirmed that a spill had occurred Nov. 21 and said that as property owner, Wyant was responsible for all waste-handling.

Farming by law

Contract farming is not a violation of the state's anti-corporate farming law, Arnot said, noting the practice has been going on for years with several companies.

"We're going to continue to operate within the scope of the law," Arnot said. "We're not doing anything different now than we've done in the last several years."

Arnot said the company will not take action until it receives the letter. Speer said the county would sue if Premium Standard does not meet its demands.

Linn County was the first in the state to pass a health ordinance to control the size and location of livestock operations. Speer said he thought this was the first time a county had cited the state's corporate farm law in an attempt to remove hogs owned by Premium Standard.