Lancaster farming. (Lancaster, Pa., etc.) 1955-current, March 14, 1998, Image 22
A22-Lancasta( Farming, Saturday, Much 14, 1998 Nutrient Management Proposals Challenge Future of Farming (Continued (ram Page A 1) problems, especially with fetuses and newborns. Traditional and long standing doctrine has held that phosphorus, while water soluable in some forms, mainly occurs in a relative ly stable form and doesn't move easily from the soil. Because of the physics of its chemistry, soil phosphorus has been largely considered to be attracted to soils particles, such as clay. Like iron to a magnet, pho sphorus has bcen'thought to stick pretty close to the soil particles to which it attatches. After a soil is saturated with phosphorus, any additional pho sphorus is then free to form other compounds, some water soluable. Sandy soils, naturally low in the electromagnetically charged clay particles that serve as a binder of phosphorus, reach saturation faster and can not handle as much pho sphorus loading. While those considerations weren't challenged by new infor mation presented Tuesday to the advisory board, the new informa tion was that erosion and sedimen tation controls apparently don’t have much effect on preventing the flow of phosphorus from crop fields, especially those that use conservation tillage practices. Apparently, the biological community soil microbes feeding on organic materials that develops in the top layer of soils, especially in farm field where conservation tillage is prac ticed, such as no-till, readily con verts phosphorus into an aqueous form. Not only is that beneficial for growing plants, because they need phosphorus in the aqueous form, but that creates a steady flow of phosphorus in surface storm water runoff of those fields. The information presented fay Dr. Doug Beegle, Peon State Uni versity agronomist and advisor to the SOS NMAB, represents a com plete turnaround on what had been considered scientific fact and a foundation of nutrient management. However, phosphorus is not \l $ 57 95 HUBER’S Phone Mon. 7:30-6 ANIMAL f&ALTH SUPPLIES 717- 810 Tulpehocken Rd., Myerstown, Pa. 17067 866-2246 Sat. 7-30-Noon linked directly to human health concerns. The EPA’s concern with pho sphorus, and Maryland’s concern are tied into high soil tests and water tests, and several events over the past year fish kills and lesions, and some apparently related human health problems were scientifically linked to the aquatic dinoflagillate, “pfiesteria piscacada.” The normally non-dangerous pfiesteria organism has been unscientifically linked to pho sphorus pollution, but, because of nearby Ugh density animal agri cultural operations and Ugh pho sphorus findings, some consider the coincidental link to be evi dence enough. From infonnation presented to the NMAB during its scheduled meeting in the slate Department of Agriculture Building in Harris burg, it was made clear that if fed eral initiatives to control livestock manure applications on land based on plant needs of phosphor us, the phosphorus content of the manure, and the existing soil levels of the nutrient were to be adopted, it would have the effect of raising the cost of fanning beyond competitive levels, especially in world trade, where environmental restrictions on production (as well as government-mandated labor costs) are far from equal. Theoretically, a change from nitrogen-based nutrient manage ment to phosphorus-based nutrient management on farms with Ugh levels of residual soil phosphorus would mean discovering some other means of disposing of animal manures instead of applying it to cropland. Additionally, if phosphorus based management were man dated, it would mean purchasing commercial nitrogen fertilizer and applying that to meet crop require ments (but no more). That could easily means devas tating additional costs of production. It was discussed that feeding techniques recently initiated in the Mid West, such as to use phytase in poultry feeds, could be used to lower tbc amount of phosphorus in CCA TREATED FENCE POSTS Can Be Used For High Tensile Fence, Board Fence or Con ventional Pasture Fence Build Tour Own Fence manure. Also mentioned was the possi bility of using some phosphorus binding chemicals (such as iron sulfate) to effectively form biolog ically inert phosphorus compounds. The switch to emphasizing pho sphorus as the nutrient of equal or most concern has been sudden and unexpected, but recent soil research findings apparently sup port the switch in emphasis, according to Beegle, who said he was as surprised as anyone with the findings of the research. The public health threat may well be completely unfounded There is no clear link between phosphorus and the health concern presented by the pfiesteria organ ism, but that hasn’t stopped Mary land Gov. Parris deadening from proposing legislation that could well drive the integrated poultry industry off of the Maryland East ern Shore. deadening is up for refection, as is the entire slate of Maryland public officials. Maryland elects all of its state government at the same time, not staggered as in Pennsylvania. Ironically, according to a Tues day Wall Street Journal article, deadening is considered to be at risk of losing because of poor voter perceptions and some early trouble over campaign funds. According to Tom Simpson, an agronomist who holds a joint appointment with the University of Maryland and the Maryland Department of Agriculture, the aquatic organism was scientifical ly linked to human health prob lems (short term memory losses, a nuerological disorder), and was cited as the cause for a fish kill of juvenile menhadden fishes in the Maryland Pocomoke River estuary in August, and some fish lolls in the Catolinas. However, Simpson said that the fish 101 l coincided with the ««m«l migration of the juvenile fish from the rivets into die estuaries, port of their life cycle. He said that prior to the fishes’ downstream migration, that the pfisteria organism were in the water feeding on algae. See Us For Your Spring Supplies... On E-Z Off Rml 14 Guaga Insulators Rather than phosphorus being the cause for the pfisteria switch ing from algae to fish flesh. Simp, son said there is at least an equal possibility that the large schools of fish passing through the clouds of pfisteria stimulated the organism to change feeding strategics. Perhaps some chemical in the waste of the fish triggers the response, he theorized. However, a group of people tasked with investigating the situa tion did not have time in the few months last year to learn the truth about the pfisteria mystery. in the meantime, front page newspaper stories about “pfisteria hysteria” are blamed for helping to create a $4OO million loss in sea food sales for the Maryland East ern Shore. He said tourism losses couldn’t be estimated. The event was basically a food scare, perpetuated by out-of perspective reporting, anda lack of scientific effort to determine the cause. Glendening has proposed a budget that includes allocations to help pay for hiring additional peo ple to inspect farms, and to help pay for trucking manure out of the region. According to statements of experts presenting infonnation to the board, in some cases it could require as much time as die passing of a family generation or more on a farm before the amount of pho sphorus would be reduced to allow a return to spreading manure. The volunteer NMAB was created by Pennsylvania law to .develop and recommend program design and regulations to cany out the state Nutrient Management Act, also known as Act 6. It has largely met those initial responsibilities, but continues to meet to review program develop ments and address new issues related to nutrient management, as the program gets underway in its first full year of program operation. The first official state nutrient management plan was approved late last year in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania law makes plan ning and implementation of best management practices (BMPs) mandatory for those animal agri culture operations which exceed a set threshold for the number of livestock per acre available for crop or pasture production, includ ing rented and owned land. Pennsylvania law mandates nutrient management planning when livestock animal weights exceed 2,000 pounds per acre. The EPA recommendations announced recently, are to require nutrient management plans nation ally, based on a different calcula tion of stocking rate per acre. The NMAB’s meeting agenda included an update from a rep resentative of the state Department of Environmental Protection on what the agency has been doing to work with EPA mandates for nutri ent management The EPA had recently promula gated national nutrient manage ment regulations in an effort to control die nutrient pollution prob lems associated with, for example, hog farms in Noth Carolina, poul try operations in the Mid West, and (closer to Washington, D.C.) the concentrated poultry industry on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The EPA nutrient regulations requite management plans and federal permits of farms consid ered Concentrated Animat Feed ing Operations (CAFOs), as com pared to Pennsylvania’s Concen trated Animal Operations (CAOs). It was known by DEP officials that the EPA was concerned with the nutrient phosphorus, but it was not known how much concern was attached to the nutrient. Technically, Act 6 allows for further investigation and recom mendations from DEP on the potential for trouble from the other two of the big three nutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). (Every beg of fertilizer contains a listing of the percentages of N, P and K, in that order. For example, a 15-10-10 fertilizer would be IS percent N-10 percent P, and 10 percent K.) Plants require all three in adequ ate amounts to be healthy and high yielding. Soil tests can be used to guage bow much of each nutrient should be applied to the soil to supply a plant with 100 percent of its needs. It is also known that these nutri ents can exist in the soils in various forms and in different molecular (Tufh io Pag* A4l)