A24-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 12, 2003
Dairy-A-PhAIR Addresses Phosphorus, Air Quality
MICHELLE KUNJAPPU
Lancaster Farming Staff
CONESTOGA (Lancaster Co.)
A group of 17 producers,
speakers, and agriculture indus
try representatives gathered this
week at the Frey Dairy Farm,
Conestoga for “Dairy-A-PhAIR,”
a course designed to address
phosphorus and Air quality.
Penn State Dairy Alliance
sponsored the event.
Robb Meinen, Penn State, dis
cussed the Pennsylvania Envi
ronmental Agricultural Conser
vation Certification of Excellence
(PEACCE) program.
Following an environmental
awareness course, an on-farm as
sessment and Environmental Re
view, and a conservation district
checklist, producers can be certi
fied in the program.
In addition, he discussed odor
and manure application. Penn
sylvania’s nutrient management
plans are based on nitrogen; how
ever, future plans will include
phosphorus, he said.
“Ten percent of the land con
tributes 90 percent of the Phos
phorus that enters our waters,”
said Meinen. “The phosphorus
Index allows us to identify that
ten percent of the land.”
Carissa Itle Westrick, dairy en
vironmental consultant, dis-
Speakers at the recent Dairy-A-PhAir include, from left, Tom Frey, Frey Dairy
Farms, and Penn State representatives Virginia Ishler, Jerry Martin, Alyssa Dodd,
and Robb Meinen.
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cussed the correlation between
agriculture and the Clean Air
Act.
In the past, said Westrick,
water quality and proper permit
inspections were complaint driv
en, since “if you have an odor
problem, you have a neighbor
problem,” she said.
Now, inspections are becoming
increasingly routine.
In 2000 a large hog farm in
Missouri was sued under the
Clean Air Act (CAA), causing
producers to look carefully at the
link between the CAA and their
farms. However “the science is
just not there yet to regulate agri
culture under CAA,” she said.
Although odor and air quality
“must be lumped together so
odor can be regulated and en
forced, from a producer stand
point, I do think it’s two different
issues,” she said.
“For Pennsylvania, air quality
concerns are likely to be odor
driven, with most pressure com
ing in areas of suburban sprawl,”
said Westrick. “Make your
neighbors happy, and it will re
turn back to you ten-fold.”
Alyssa Dodd, extension associ
ate at Penn State, addressed nu
trient management requirements.
Nutrient-related regulations in
Pennsylvania include the Clean
Streams Law, the Nutrient Man
agement Act, and the Federal
Clean Water Act.
Dodd also discussed the shift
ing focus to phosphorus. “Chang
ing science reveals that dissolved
phosphorus in runoff is immedi
ately available” and “is not just
sediment-bound,” said Dodd.
Pennsylvania’s Nutrient Man
agement Act regulations, which
became effective in 1997, are
under review.
Dodd encouraged producers to
participate in government activi
ties and help shape policy. “This
is an active time in Pennsylva
nia,” she said, reminding the au
dience that their comments and
concerns must be addressed, and
“it does make a difference.”
To read about nutrient man
agement regulations, a manual is
available through local conserva
tion districts.
Roy Richardson, PDA, dis
cussed the Plan Development In
centives Program, Agri-Link Low
Interest Loans, Plan Implementa
tion Grant Program, and Grow
ing Greener Grants, state-funded
programs to fund best manage
ment practices (BMPs).
Federal sources for BMPs in
clude the Chesapeake Bay Pro
gram and the Environmental
Quality Incentive Program
Tom Frey, owner and president of Frey Dairy Farms,
discusses the operation’s nutrient management with the
help of a farm diagram.
(EQIP).
Funding for streambank fenc
ing may come through the DEP,
Ducks Unlimited, Pennsylvania
Game Commission, or Agricul
ture Management Assistance
Program (AMA).
Meinen also discussed manure
storage management. He defined
“freeboard,” the area above the
maximum engineered holding ca
pacity, as an area usually de
signed to hold a 25 year, 24-hour
storm event.
“Breaching freeboard without
a major storm event could be
considered negligent manage
ment,” he said.
Besides installing new storage
units to hold liquid capacity for
storms, Meinen advised keeping
weekly records such as leak de
tection, rain gauge measurement,
and liner integrity, among others.
Local contacts for finding out
the availability of funds include
the Conservation District, USDA
Service Centers, Watershed Asso
ciations, State Conservation
Commission, and PDA.
Virginia Ishler, Penn State,
discussed four departments with
information on nutrient manage
ment.
A web user can find the de
partments’ information at http://
nutrient.psu.edu/.
News, key contacts, informa
tion on the Phosphorus Index, a
self-test, website user survey, and
animal units calculator are also
included.
Jerry Martin, who works with
the nutrient management educa
tion program for Penn State ex
tension, discussed the phospho
rus index. The index, which
measures each field’s ability to
handle nutrients, takes into con
sideration source factors (How is
it applied? Are the nutrients in
corporated? What time of year is
it applied?) and transport factors
(how much erosion does the field
sustain? What are the runoff lev
els? Is there subsurface drain
age?).
These factors, and others, are
combined in an equation to yield
a number on a scale of 100. Top
scoring fields would be barred
from further fertilization, accord
ing to Martin.
However, changing factors
such as adding a buffer or chang
ing the time of application from
fall to spring may lower the
field’s score and allow more fer
tilizer application.
“It’s not trying to eat the sys
tem but improve things,” he said.
The phosphorus index “Encour
ages those improvements along
the way.”
Tom Frey, owner, Frey Dairy
Farms, discussed the dairy’s nu
trient management operation.
The dairy includes two freestall
bams, 600 stalls each, and almost
1,300 Holsteins that are milked
three times a day.
The older milking parlor is still
in use for fresh and treated cows,
said Frey. The older bams are
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