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
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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
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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.
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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)