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Changes In Works For Winter Manure

Panel Weighs Options To Avoid Runoff

The Capital Times :: METRO :: 1C

Wednesday, April 13, 2005
By Bill Novak The Capital Times

While it's unlikely a complete ban on winter manure spreading on farm fields will be instituted, farmers might be required to improve storage capabilities. But other solutions might also be in the works, including building a centralized facility that would collect the methane gas byproduct from manure and sell it to power companies.

The task force was formed by County Executive Kathleen Falk in March following two major liquid manure runoff incidents in February. One incident on the west branch of the Sugar River killed hundreds of fish, while a second incident on a creek north of Lake Mendota resulted in upwards of a half-million gallons of liquid manure washing off a farm field into the waterway.

The manure spreading task force will meet for the first time at 8 tonight at the Lyman F. Anderson Agriculture and Conservation Center, 1 Fen Oak Court, on Madison's far east side.

"We look forward to working with the public to solve this problem," Falk said. "We know protecting our lakes and streams is a priority for citizens and we welcome the help of the farm community in coming up with an efficient and fair way to do this."

Task force members include swine producer Bob Uphoff of the town of Dunn; dairy farmer Dennis Jelle of the town of Blue Mounds; dairy farmer Jeff Endres of the town of Springfield; Jeff Smith of Wisconsin Trout Unlimited; attorney Andrew Hanson from Midwest Environmental Advocates; and County Board Supervisors Jerry Jensen, Don Eggert, Chuck Erickson and Brett Hulsey.

Dane County is one of the biggest dairy farm counties in the country, with 400 dairy farms located here.

The majority of the smaller dairy farmers haul solid manure to fields every day, but solid manure doesn't run off frozen farm fields in winter, the principal cause of waterway fouling.

"Our focus is on liquid manure," Hulsey said. "We have an opportunity to come up with the best manure management plan in the country."

Land and Water Resources Department Director Kevin Connors said an outright ban on spreading liquid manure in winter would benefit area waterways but could pose a significant challenge.

"Doing nothing, however, won't be accepted," Connors said.

The task force has scheduled four meetings, with final recommendations on manure management being made to Falk by May 4.

Kevin Erb, a Green Bay manure specialist with the UW-Extension, said there are about 100 for-hire manure applicators in Wisconsin, hiring out to farmers to spread and spray manure onto farm fields year-round.

In the past few years, industry standards for for-hire applicators have been strengthened. Erb said most haulers now won't haul and spread liquid manure in January and February because of the risks involved.

"Since this past winter began, roughly 20 percent of the spills involved for-hire applicators," Erb said. "In 2002, 80 percent of the spills involved for-hire applicators."

Manure management problems this winter were weather-related.

Farmers weren't able to harvest corn until late in the fall, keeping them from loading their harvested lands with manure, and heavy rains in January froze in the fields, putting down an impermeable ice layer that didn't allow liquid manure to sink in.

When warmer weather melted the ice and more rain came, any manure sitting on top of the icy fields just washed off to the nearest waterway.

"Farmers normally would have pumped their manure storage out in the fall but they had to wait, and then there was ice in the fields in January," Erb said. "We had a plethora of problems this year."

Hulsey said the task force will look at different solutions to the winter manure spreading problem, including setting up a bio-digester that would capture methane gas from manure for sale to power companies, an incentives program through the Federal Farm Act of 2004 to allow farmers to build more manure storage and some regulation of haulers.

Farm manure haulers are not licensed by the state.

The problem with liquid manure isn't with the big farms, Erb said, but with smaller farms that have run out of storage.

A manure hauler in Dane County is also considering setting up a storage facility that farmers could use when they run out of room on the farm to avoid spreading in winter, but Erb wouldn't identify the hauler.

The state of Maine imposed a winter manure spreading ban that runs from Dec. 1 to Mar. 15, but Hulsey said he's not sure Maine's dairy industry would be a good gauge to follow in setting rules for one of the biggest dairy producing counties in the country.

"We have more cows in Dane County than in all of the state of Maine," Hulsey said.

Simple solutions will also be talked of, such as putting a 100-foot vegetation buffer strip between farm fields and waterways.

"The task force challenge is to make something happen that will protect both our streams and the family farm," Hulsey said.

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