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Farmers speak out about proposed manure on frozen ground rules Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Agri News staff writer
CALMAR, Iowa -- The 250 farmers who crowded into the Dairy Center Friday had a unified message for the Department of Natural Resources --education, not regulation.
Farmers packed the meeting room and spilled out into the hall for a hearing on the DNR's proposed rule for surface application of manure on frozen ground. Cattle producers from several east central Iowa counties arrived by chartered bus.
"I believe the right approach is to educate, not regulate," said Roy Hageman, a beef farmer from Calmar.
Hageman asked for a show of hands for those who want education instead of regulation. Nearly everyone raised their hands.
"Note taken," Hageman said.
"We need education, not dictation," said Roger Decker, who operates a 600-cow dairy farm with his sons near Westgate.
"Instead of a rule with such severe restrictions on the application of manure, you should put forth best practice recommendations of areas where winter application will be most effective based on slope, soil type and residue," said Gary Bishop, a West Union dairy producer. "Instead of beating us down with regulations, you should encourage us with tools such as information and recommendations based on sound science."
Dean Meyer, a New Albin dairy farmer, said he would need additional manure storage to comply with the regulations.
"With the lay of the land and separation distances, that will create a huge problem," he said. "With milk prices at $10 per hundredweight I don't know where I'll get the money to do it."
He said that banning manure applications until April 15 would be hard to work with. Often times, he's doing field work by that time.
If rules are to stringent, farmers will quit dairying, and alfalfa, which holds the soil in place on northeast Iowa's rolling hills, will be planted to corn and soybeans, Meyer said.
John Rodecap, who recently retired from working with farmers on watershed projects, said knowledge needs to be communicated neighbor to neighbor.
"In these projects we used a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach," Rodecap said. "It doesn't solve all the problems, but it's very powerful tool, and it's cost-effective. We need to find out how to do that in more watersheds."
Wayne Kramer, a Dubuque County dairy farmer, participated in the Hewitt Creek Watershed project along with 67 percent of the farmers in the watershed. Water quality improvements have been documented due to improved farming practices.
"Research has been done already," Kramer said. "We implemented it. Now we need more funding to keep it going." |
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