Dvoraks Beef Farms, LLC

Background: Manitowoc County could have become home to one of the largest feedlots east of the Mississippi River. Dvorak Beef Farms, LLC proposed to construct a 5,000 head feedlot, feed storage complex, and manure digester/power plant in a residential and agricultural area of the Town of Gibson. According to Dvorak Beef Farms, LLC, the feedlot would supply beef on a contract basis to Smithfield Foods – owned by Packerland Packing in Green Bay. Smithfield Foods has been labeled one of the worst polluters in the United States (see the Sierra Club Rapsheet), having been fined 12.6 million dollars in 1997 by the federal government for polluting the Pagan River in Virginia.

Residents and farmers in the Town of Gibson mobilized to stop the feedlot from moving in and formed a new grassroots organization: Citizens for Responsible Agriculture and a Clean Environment. They placed yard signs, wrote letters to the editor, distributed flyers, and attended public meetings to express opposition to the feedlot and their concern that the feedlot will industrialize the rural residential and agricultural atmosphere of the Town of Gibson. The residents were concerned about groundwater depletion and contamination, as well as surface water pollution, impacts to roads and traffic, noise, dust, odors from the freestall barns for neighbors directly adjacent to the facility, and other impacts.

The Town of Gibson enacted a resolution expressing concern about the impacts of the 5,000 head feedlot and a desire to complete the town’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan before further consideration of the project by the Manitowoc County Board of Adjustment. The neighboring town of Kossuth, where much of the manure water from the facility would be landspread, has enacted a resolution opposing the 5,000 head feedlot.

Unfortunately, Dvoraks Beef Farms, LLC used intimidation and the threat of a lawsuit to attempt to silence members of Citizens for Responsible Agriculture and Clean Environment, and even went as far as to threaten an employer of an individual member by withdrawing business contracts. These tactics are shameful and only served to strengthen public opposition to the 5,000 Head Feedlot.

To operate in Manitowoc County, Dvoraks Beef Farm, LLC had to obtain a conditional use permit. After a public hearing on November 13, 2002, the Manitowoc County Board of Adjustment unanimously decided to delay its determination of the conditional use permit application until after January 1, 2003.

On February 17, 2003, The Manitowoc County Board of Adjustment denied the feedlot’s conditional use permit application based on concerns about the feedlot’s potential pollution of groundwater and surface water.

Dvorak’s then sued Manitowoc County, and Citizens for Responsible Agriculture (represented by Garvey & Stoddard and MEA) successfully intervened in the case.

Status: On May 23, 2003, the local community group celebrated when the Manitowoc County Circuit Court upheld Manitowoc County’s decision to deny a conditional use permit for Dvorak Beef Farms’ 5,000 head feedlot. In court, Dvorak Beef Farms, LLC attempted to rely on a state statute that limits local water quality regulation (Wis. Stat. s. 92.15). The court ruled that the statute does not apply to conditional use permits, and that the County properly denied the conditional use permit for the feedlot.

Read the Sierra Club Rapsheet listing Smithfield Foods as a top polluter [rapsheet.pdf 1.6 MB]

Read the Dvorak Farms Factsheet produced by Citizens for Responsible Agriculture and a Clean Environment [factsheet.pdf 116 KB]