Below are highlights from an article by Todd Richmond, Associated Press, published in the Register Citizen on September 18, 2019.
Sen. Steve Nass, co-chairman of the Legislature’s rules committee, issued a terse statement Wednesday accusing department “bureaucrats” of ignoring the industry’s concerns and making life harder for farmers. He promised to do everything he can to block the rules if they reach his committee in their present form.
But a coalition of farm advocacy groups sent DATCP a letter last week arguing that the approach wouldn’t be workable. Farmers could be forced to place manure pits thousands of feet from a neighbor’s empty fields or woods. They also complained that farmers would have to purchase costly odor-mitigation equipment to reduce setbacks.
“If adopted unchanged, this revised rule would result in significant costs to operations that want to expand, resulting in a ‘chilling effect’ on livestock industry growth,” the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance said in a statement Monday. “Rather than grow in Wisconsin, producers will leave the state for more workable locations. Following the supply, meat and milk processors will move new investment opportunities to wherever that supply is.”
Read the article in its entirety at https://www.registercitizen.com/news/article/Key-lawmaker-vows-to-kill-manure-storage-rules-14449365.php
