Understand New CAFO Regulations Travis Edwards and Dr. Zhiguo Wu Dairy and Animal Science Penn State New regulations have been re leased, but not all farms qualify as a Concentrated Animal Feed ing Operation (CAFO). However, some farms in Penn sylvania will now need to verify whether or not they fall under the CAFO designation, because a CAFO is now defined by herd size rather than animal units per acre. An additional aspect of the new requirements covers all sizes of dairy operations. Whether you milk 20 or 700 cows, if your farm is found to be in danger of pollut ing surface waters, your opera tion may require a CAFO permit. The new regulations have been nanocu vw us. En vironmental Protection Agency (EPA), and they come with no real surprise. This issue has been the topic of conversation within the agricultural sector for quite some time now, especially in the dairy industry, with regards to phosphorus feeding manage ment. The new rules, designed with some flexibility at the state level, are more practical and less costly than the original proposal in December of 2000. The new guidelines are de signed in the interest of cleaner and purer water, while maintain ing the viability of agriculture as we know it today. It is a histori cal combination of effort and in terest on the part of the EPA and the USDA. The two agencies have combined to protect nation al waters from nutrient over-en richment by combining mandato ry and voluntary nutrient management programs, replacing programs that were more than 25 years old, and not adequate to protect water resources. Some of the new definitions re lated to dairy operations are as follows. • Large CAFOs are now de fined as a dairy that has at least 700 dairy cows, and/or 1,000 heif ers. • A medium CAFO is defined as one that has at least 200 dairy cows, and/or 300 heif ers, as well as a man made ditch or pipe carrying manure, or animals come into contact with surface water running through the area where they are confined. • You may also be designated a CAFO if your permitting au thority finds that you Lancaster Farming's Classified Ads Get Results! Graystone Small Animal Sale LLO (Root’s Market Manhcim, PA) Every Tuesday 4:30 pm Rcecnmg 6 am till sale time Ml kinds ot Ponlm, Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Pigeons 717-898-0755 are adding pollutants to a water body. • Some rules applying to other aspects of animal production were changed, including elimi nating the exemption that excus es CAFOs from applying for per mits if they only discharge during large storms; eliminating the exemption for operations that raise chickens with dry manure systems; and extending coverage to immature swine and immature dairy cows. Lastly, the new rule increases public access to inform ation through CAFO annual re ports. You will need to apply to your state permitting authority for a permit if your farm qualifies as a CAFO. All dairy cow or heifer CAFOs must implement a nutri ent management plan, submit an nua] reports to your permitting authority, xccp p,.....v cur rent until you completely close your operation and remove all manure, and keep records of your nutrient management prac tices for at least five years. The plan must allow for assur ing adequate manure storage ca pacity, proper handling of dead animals and chemicals, diverting clean water from the production area (area where animals are housed and manure is stored), keeping animals out of surface water using site specific conser vation practices, developing ways to test manure and soil, assuring appropriate use of nutrients when you spread manure, and keeping records of your nutrient management practices. For medium and designated dairy cow or heifer CAFOs, the permitting authority may set ad ditional requirements for your nutrient management plan that will depend on the permit writ er’s best professional judgment, which could be similar to the re quirements for large dairy cow or heifer CAFOs. Large dairy cow or heifer CAFOs will also be required to design a production area to con tain all of manure plus the runoff from a once-in-25-years, 24-hour rainfall event, install depth mark ers in liquid manure storage structures, inspect your produc tion area weekly and all water lines daily, and correct any prob lems you find as soon as possible. Operators must apply manure at rates that meet permitting au thority’s standards; analyze ma nure for nutrient content at least once a year; analyze the soil from land application fields for phos phorus content every five years; avoid applying manure to any land within 100 feet of surface water from time to time; inspect land application equipment for leaks; and keep records for at least five years on the date, recip ient, amount, and nutrient con tent of any manure that is trans ferred to other persons. Information about the nutrient content of your manure must be provided to tWe recipient of any transferred manure (information from the EPA website, www.e pa.gov). The final addition to national nutrient management laws re quires large CAFOs to prepare and implement a site-specific nu trient management plan for ma nure application. Land applica tion will be based on the nutrient management plan that establish es application rates based on crops needs for the greatest con centration of the limiting nutri ents, nitrogen and phosphorus. Soil tests will determine which of those nutrients is present in the greatest concentration, and the plans will revolve around the crop removal of that nutri ent. Mi Approximately 15,500 livestock operations across the country will be affected by the new restrictions. Until now, there were about 4,500 farms covered by permits, With the changes, the EPA expects that number to increase by about 11,000 farms re quired to apply for permits by the year 2006. How will this affect the dairy industry? Well, the good news is that the cost of implementing the new program is well below the original estimation of $9BO mil lion per year, now estimated at $335 million per year for all ani mal production facilities. The bad news is that the cost to the national dairy industry will be approximately $l5O million for affected producers. Again, that is below what was initially ex pected. Some of the stricter pro posed changes were lessened, and some leniency was allowed at the state level which has reduced the cost of the program. The somewhat complicated changes will affect about 3,400 dairy producers nationally. Of those, 1,500 have 700 cows or more. Thf 1,900 smaller opera tions ar< located in geographic areas oi targeted regulation. To aid in the cost of implemen tation, congress increased monies available for land and water con servation prugi dills in the 2002 Farm Bill by $20.9 billion, bring ing the total funding for the pro grams to $5l billion over the next decade. The Environmental Quality In centives Program (EQIP) was au thorized at $2OO million in 2002, and is expected to increase to $1.3 billion in 2007. Of these funds, 60 percent must go to live stock operations. Secondly, new technology is being perfected to aid farmers in meeting the new rules. Technologies in manure management, such as composters and anaerobic digesters are being APRIL SPECIAL 0 a HIGH-TENSILE FENCE WIRE 12V? gage High-Tensile Fence Wire F 4099 Type 111 (Class A) Galvanized Zinc SC4 QR Coating Minimum Tensile Strength 20 000 psi Minimum Breaking Strain 1500 lbs Coils Approximately 4000 feet or 240 rods PERMANENT IN-LINE WIRE STRAINER F 1703 ju Maintains correct tension on fence $4 f>A n wire Allows seasonal adjustment I iOw Use in Center of strain or at the Each end of strain V. c SPINNING JENNY F 1717 Pays out wire with ease Central SCQ AC spike with large stabilizer plate v«li«v holds firmly in the ground Each 4” to 5” x 6%’ TREATED POSTS $ 7.39 PW4565 11’ SPLIT RAIL VAT. * OTHER fP FENCE SUPPLIES **«►■ " ON SALE CRIMP TOOL WITH CUTTER F 2155 *43.95 Each DARE BLACK WIDOW™ ELECTRIC FENCE INSULATOR BW-RS F 2004 >1 .09 Ea. PP a MODEL 402 • 2 joule energy output @ 200 ohms • Charges up to 50 miles of clean fence • UL listed • Shocks through SAA ft A wet weeds wO.UU studied as viable aids in helping producers comply with tighter re strictions. Another positive aspect of the new regulations is the expected immediate reductions in pollu tion of surface and ground water. The amount of phosphorus re leased will be reduced by a pro jected 56 million pounds, and ni trogen releases by more than 100 million pounds. In addition, the regulations are projected to pre vent release of more than two bil lion pounds of sediments and a million pounds of metals. When these reductions are made public, it will enhance the nation’s agricultural image of land stewardship and concern for the environment. While it may cause initial setbacks and adapta tion for our industry, it will also secure it as a permanent, viable part of our economy. As an industry, we have al ready been making changes and moving toward the regulations that have recently been proposed. Over-supplementation of nutri ents such as nitrogen, and more recently, phosphorus, has been on the forefront of dairy news and research. There has been a na tionwide effort to reduce the amount of these nutrients ex creted in dairy manure. This idea was spurred by the expectation that the new regulations were forthcoming. Because our indus try has been proactive in adop ting such practices, we are well positioned to deal with the new rules. HIGH TENSILE FENCE SUPPLIES Each 4” to 5” x 8’ TREATED POSTS $ 8.99 PW4SB SRII $ 6.75 Each Metal Posts On Sale ALL FENCE WIRE 10% Off (Rolls Only) F 1247 men DARE RUBBER GATE HANDLE $ 1.55 * FI 793 DARE STEEL CASED GATE HANDLE $ 2.85 F 2222 SPRING GATE 14’ *11.95 F 2221 SPRING GATE 24’ *13.95 Fence Panels Five-O-Lite Testers FI 360 *6.95 50 Woodcorner Rd. Lititz, PA 17543 1 Mi. West of Ephrata 717-738-7350
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