Vo-ag center gets OK for hog facility
By NANCY KIMBALL
The Daily Inter Lake
A long-awaited hog facility at the H.E. Robinson Vocational Ag Center in Kalispell finally is getting under way.
Excavation should start next week, after a school board decision Tuesday night to let the staff at the agriculture campus off Willow Glen Drive spend money and use materials that have been held in reserve for the project.
Vo-ag students surveyed the building site this fall. Students in Flathead Valley Community College heavy equipment classes will do site prep and some of the excavation.
Construction will continue through the winter.
Vo-ag head teacher Clark Krantz said he hopes to muster enough labor and at-cost or donated materials to finish in time to farrow there next spring. When the farrowing facilities are finished, construction will move on to the market-hog portion and finally the unheated cattle, sheep and horse barn.
"We just see animal science as a real vital part of our program," Krantz said. "These two facilities will allow us to have a safe environment to teach the kids in, and allow us to continue to improve what we are teaching the kids."
The school still uses a century-old hog barn that sits on county Weed Department property nearby, but threatens water quality in Stillwater River by its position within feet of the riverbank.
In a three-way agreement last year, the county, local conservation district and school worked out a land donation that means vacating the old hog barn and building the new one.
The hog facility and livestock barn will be built on the five acres that Flathead County donated last year, immediately adjacent to the class and shop building.
The 32-by-73-foot heated swine facility will house six farrowing crates, Krantz said, in addition to the sow and market hog pens. It will be separate from the livestock barn because of the odor and type of waste generated.
The livestock shed , measuring 32-by-84 feet, will be an open pole barn for hay storage and for lambing, foaling and calving. In addition, it will hold a teaching area with bleachers circling a small arena where animals can be led in for instruction sessions.
Both metal buildings will be adequate for student safety and education purposes but will be "pretty plain," Krantz said.
About $80,000-$100,000 in cash and materials is on hand - $30,000 from a federal grant bought interior fixtures to operate the facility last year, $10,000 from the Flathead County Conservation District bought lumber and building materials, and another $40,000-$60,000 from FFA money and proceeds of equipment sales will cover some of the remaining costs.
It will be enough to get the project started, Krantz said, but not to finish it.
Last year, the school board earmarked $150,000 but put a hold on it until renovations at Flathead High are covered.
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com