There are many benefits to crop-livestock integration systems. National Pork Board Vice President Gordon Spronk sees numerous benefits for a crop-livestock integrated system. “We plant the seeds, those plants grow, we feed those plants to our pigs or our animals and then they generate manure, and the manure is a great agronomic source of the NPK, the nitrogen and phosphorus, and potassium to put back on the plant-soil interaction.” Spronk emphasizes the importance of ag groups working together. “So few people raise food these days. It’s less than two percent, so we need to stand united in how we educate and explain our agricultural practices.”
