Steve and June also maintain a 200- sow farrow-to-finish operation in which they finish in a variety of systems. Steve was awarded a SARE Producer Grant to document his first year producing hogs in hoophouses. Hoophouses are unheated, low-cost structures in which deeply-piled bedding stabilizes the manure produced and warms the pigs as it composts. The initial capital investment for a hoophouse system is roughly one-third that for a confinement unit. Because of the low initial cost, Steve feels that in the future his children will not be locked into this system the way they might be if he has committed to a more expensive technology.

Steve and June's kids did some documenting on their own. As the hoophouses were going up, they took photographs for the following album, which they turned into a 4-H project. Steve and June Weis may be contacted at 515-737-2566