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NC Pork Council reports 12 lagoons affected so far

Flooding from Hurricane Florence has affected about a dozen hog farms, so far, according to the North Carolina Pork Council. A lagoon on a small farm in Duplin County has been breached but the solids stayed in the lagoon. Four other lagoons have been inundated by flood waters and seven appear to have overtopped.

The council says on-farm assessments do not show widespread effects but more impact from the rising waters is expected. The North Carolina Pork Council says communication is spotty with those in the field. North Carolina hog farmers had huge losses 20 years ago in Hurricane Floyd when more than 20-thousand swine were killed and 50 waste lagoons flooded.

As for poultry operations in North Carolina, Sanderson Farms reported Monday that about 1.7 million chickens had been killed by flooding at contractor farms in the state. Thirty Sanderson farms — housing more than six-Million birds — were surrounded by floodwaters and couldn’t be reached by feed trucks.