Tom,

Your comments regarding the EPA-USDA Draft AFO Strategy are interesting.  I'm
not sure that the majority of the Chapter members think as you do, I
personally feel uncomfortable taking on the social, economic, sometimes
religious, and certainly traditional problems of the changing patterns of
raising livestock.  I think we would be on much more solid ground if we
concentrated on the environmental problems associated with the industry -- no
matter how big the facility, the number of head confined, family owned, etc.

These excerpts came from the Farm News (Fort Dodge Messenger, August 7, 98).
The quotes are from Al Stokes, DNR.

‘Of the nearly 20,000 livestock operations in the state of Iowa, only 722 are
required to have a DNR permit to operate their confinement or feedlot
operations.  Stokes said that livestock operations are required to have a
permit if they contain more that 200,000 live weight at any one time, so in
effect, an operation could have 13,000 baby pigs in a building and still not
be required to have a permit.’

“Some of the worst pollution cases are caused by smaller producers,” Stokes
said.  “Lack on management and lack of education also compound the problem.”

‘The DNR also points to improper application of manure as a major problem for
many livestock operation facilities.  Over the past six years, the DNR has
reported 25 incidents of operators improperly applying manure.  When too much
manure is applied too quickly to the land, much of it can be washed into
creeks via tile lines.’

‘A recent Iowa State University Extension poll found that most farmers use
their own personal experience and knowledge when deciding how much manure to
apply to their fields.  The poll discovered that 59 percent of producers used
their own personal judgment when choosing an application rate, 14 percent
based their decision on crop nutrient requirements and only 10 percent based
their decision on soil tests.’

‘Randy Kilborn, ISU professor of soil fertility, said that without soil tests,
it is just a guessing game when it comes to applying manure to the land.
Kilborn said soil testing and chemical tests on the manure are critical in
proper manure management.  Manure that is overapplied to a field is wasted
fertilizer, he said.’

Plant nutrients not utilized by the crops in the field usually end up in the
surface water as pollution.  If 10 percent of the state’s livestock operators
use soil testing to apply their manure, 90 percent of over 19,000 operators in
Iowa dump their manure on the land according to how they feel -- experience
and judgment.

Maybe we should be working to establish a water quality monitoring system that
will clearly indicate the amount of plant nutrients that is entering the water
and where it is coming from.  A testing and analysis system that requires a
collection protocal that is universal throughout the states, and a data
management program that is universal, networked, and retrievable would do a
lot more to curtail pollution than fighting factory farms.

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