Robert E. Mikesell Pennsylvania State University

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

The expense and potential liability associated with building or expanding a swine operation demands that facilities be placed in an acceptable location. Some areas of the country or locations on an individual farm are simply not suitable for swine production because of the potential for odor complaints or environmental damage. This paper provides prospective and current - swine producers with many factors to consider when selecting potential locations to build or expand. More importantly, it offers tactics to improve marginal locations and directs developers toward tools that can help to quantify the siting process. Nonetheless, identifying and isolating acceptable locations for swine facilities requires at least a modicum of several disciplines ranging from engineering to sociology to art to common sense and neighborliness.