(continued from Page 1, The Night the Fire Took the Farm)
Rebuilding from the Wreckage
The resilience of the Epperson family following the fire has been inspiring to Hyatt Frobose, swine nutrition specialist and U.S. territory manager at JYGA Technologies. Frobose met the Eppersons at their farm two weeks before the fire during a tour as a potential collaborator in a sow research project.
“I’ve been impressed that they have approached this unfortunate situation with a ‘glass half full’ attitude and an opportunity to press the reset button and evaluate what they might do differently on the rebuild,” Frobose says.
One of the unique attributes of the rebuild from Spring Lake Pork to Legacy Pork as the new farm is known today is that they could work with the existing “footprint” of the farm.
The building is a deep pit barn and all of the concrete below the ground level was still usable, which help saved money on the rebuild, Kylie explains. But the main reason they rebuilt on top of their old foundation was because the site was already permitted.
From the outside, the new barn is quite different from the barn that burned, Russo explains. The outside of the barn is now tan with a green roof, a stark contrast from the bright white building they started with. The roof is shaped differently to help sustain a heavier snow load which gives the barns a completely different look from the road.
The fire allowed them to evaluate what worked well and what didn’t work well in their original barn setup.
“On the inside, we changed many things in the layout and functionality,” Russo says. “We moved to a Gestal electronic sow feeding (ESF) system because we felt it provided a better ease of use and would utilize less labor. It also was more streamlined in its acclimation process as well as its functionality.”
Legacy Pork had fire on the mind when planning this new facility, Russo says. They used more concrete structures where they formerly had used conventional construction.
The electrical room, the pressure washers, electrical panels in gestation and cross hallways are all enclosed in concrete to mitigate fire risk. The barn has metal interior wall coverings instead of plastic to mitigate fire as well.
“Biosecurity needs to be a priority on all farms, but we put an emphasis on it in this farm by expanding our disinfectant room and adding a UV chamber to the main lobby,” Russo adds. “Any item that enters the farm, including people, are sanitized through the disinfectant room, the UV chamber or the shower.”
The new barn is also more employee friendly. The barn features Wi-Fi and Maximus controllers in an interactive working environment for both the animals and its employees. The office was designed to be home-like, Russo says. Not only do they want their employees to enjoy coming to work, but they also want to provide them with a comfortable space to work and live.
(l to r) Janet, Jerry, Jordan and Kylie Epperson in the new Legacy Pork sow unit.
Learn From our Tragedy
Nearly a year and a half after the fire, new pigs are filling the barns and business has resumed as usual. Looking back, the Eppersons are grateful for the strange, heavy fog that filled the air the night of the fire. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“Oddly, we had the worst fog we can remember,” Kylie says. “It took twice the amount of time to get to the site, but we attribute the heavy fog as the reason the fire wasn’t highly publicized. You couldn’t see the fire until you were at the facility.”
If the Eppersons could share a little advice from their tragedy, they would encourage people to be knowledgeable about their insurance.
“We have always been confident in our insurance policies,” Kylie says. “But after the fire, we reviewed all of our policies, we improved some and left others as they were. Be sure to have business interruption insurance and know what your policy says.”
In addition, lean on your support system, she says. Know who you can talk to as your emotions develop and change throughout time.
Although the fire was a monumental experience for the Epperson family and Legacy Pork team, they won’t let it define who they are.
“We want everyone to know that we have moved on from the fire and are solely focused on making both Legacy Pork and Epperson Farms producers of high-quality pork,” Russo says. “We want to share our story not so people will have pity on us, but so they can learn from our mistakes and our growth so they don’t have to experience the same pain we did. We are in a better place today than we were before the fire.”
Read more from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Never Surrender: Scott Dee Goes To Battle To Protect U.S. Swine Herd
Sánchez-Vizcaíno Tells How Spain Stopped African Swine Fever
