Dairy Youth Benefit
From Maryland Dairy Woman
MADISON, Wis. Every mother works hard to see
her children succeed, but the 2001 World Dairy Expo
Dairy Woman of the Year has worked tirelessly to
ensure the success of hundreds of youth interested in
agriculture and the dairy industry. This year’s recipi
ent is Judy lager from Maple Lawn Farm, Fulton, Md.
lager and husband Charles operate the 1,200 acre
sixth generation Maple Lawn farm, with his brother
Gene and family. Their 175 head of Registered Hol
stein cows average 26,446 pounds of milk, 960 pounds
of fat and 820 pounds of protein. In addition, the lager
family operates a 20,000-bird fresh retail turkey busi
ness.
But it is lager’s dedication to dairy youth programs
that has made her instrumental in the lives of so many
4-H, FFA and collegiate students. This-Maryland 4-H
All-Star honoree has been a 4-H Dairy Club leader for
20 years where she stressed the importance of accurate
project records, Dairy Bowl participation, dairy cattle
judging and being in the cattle show ring. Under her
leadership, their club won the “Hoard’s Dairyman”
pictorial judging contest several times.
For 19 years, Judy served as the Southeastern Hol
stein News editor for Maryland, taking pictures and
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permits would include management strategies for
manure collection, storage, and disposal, including the
land application of manure nutrients. We estimate
that five percent of confined livestock farms are poten
tial CAFOs under current regulations. These farms
produced over half of the excess onfarm nitrogen and
two-thirds of the excess onfarm phosphorus in 1997. If
all potential CAFOs followed an NMP, the amount of
nutrients available for runoff or leaching to water re
sources could be significantly reduced.
In areas with high concentrations of animals and
high levels of excess onfarm nutrients, there may be in
sufficient land available for spreading at agronomic
rates, particularly where NMPs are phosphorus based.
Some producers will need to transport manure offsite,
and incentives may be required to encourage local
farmers without animals to use manure. Transporta
tion costs will largely determine the economic feasibil
ity of this strategy.
In any case, areas with insufficient land for spread
ing manure have the greatest need for alternatives to
land application. Mechanisms to encourage industrial
use of manure as a feedstock for commercial enter
prises (fertilizer manufacturing or energy production)
Confined Animal Production
or central processing facilities would be especially
valuable in these areas. These livestock clusters might
also be strong candidates for targeting both policy
driven adjustments and USDA funding and research
assistance.
All farms are eligible to apply for technical, educa
tional, and financial assistance in managing manure
nutrients under both USDA’s Environmental Quality
Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation
Technical Assistance Program. In addition, EQIP is
authorized to assist small and medium-sized confined
animal farms (less than 1,000 AU) with investment in
storage and treatment facilities. Requests for subsi
dized manure storage and treatment facilities and nu
trient management assistance will likely increase if
NMPs are required on more farms.
Successful development of facilities to process
manure at a central location may accelerate trends in
animal industry concentration, while failure to find
viable off-farm alternatives for manure may slow, or
even reverse, these trends. Further research is needed
to evaluate the impact of manure management policies
on the animal industry.
For more information, call (202) 694-5139 or e-mail
ERSlNFO@ers.usda.gov.
Judy lager