Secretary Designees Discuss Ag, Environmental Topics (Continued from Page A 1) focus will be on strengthening and growing the economy, “and farmers know a lot about grow ing,” he said. The administration, county and township governments, and neighbors are necessary for in vestment into agriculture and ag related businesses, he said. In addressing the environment, Wolff noted how the focus on nu trient loading has shifted from point sources (a specific, discerni ble location) to non-point sources (such as parking lots, homes, or farms). “With this shift, we need to re alize that we should approach the problem in a different way,” he said. “We need a change in personal habits to reshape how and what people think through edu cation, technical and financial as sistance, and enforcement. “Agriculture must leant how to balance its role in producing food and fiber with functioning as stewards of the land.” Part of education includes township officials, he said. “We think as a whole, township super visors and farmers are on the same wavelength,” although he acknowledged that there were also areas of disagreement. Recently the Pennsylvania De partment of Agriculture (PDA) set up a tour for. township super visors to help them understand how responsible the producers are, how they work under the re- Using High Bros, and Purina For Nutrition Needs —I HIGH BROS, n 441 Centerville Road Gordonvllle, PA • 717-354-0301 • At the recent Ag Issues Forum is, from left, Alan Bair, Pennsylvania Dairy Stakeholders; Dennis Wolff, secretary (designee) of agriculture; Karen McGinty, secretary (des ignee) of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Mi chael Brubaker. strictions of laws, and the farms’ impact on the local economy, according to Wolff. “We started a dialogue that needs to continue,” he said. Wolff noted that the tour has helped to waylay further regula tions on concentrated animal feeding (CAPO) operations. “We must continue to educate our society about what we’re doing,” Wolff said. According to McGinty, the EPA will welcome dialogue with What Do These Farms o Have In Common producers facing challenges with environmental regulations. “When I see people of good faith coming to us, people who are trying to do the right thing, we try to come to the table to gether,” she said. “The buzzword is that we exercise our enforce ment discretion.” For producers who see future requirements that would impose a burden on their facility, and come to the EPA with ideas to meet and achieve those require- ments with added flexibility from the EPA, “you will have a part ner in me with your ideas,” she said. “If you have a better way, I’d love to hear it.” McGinty began by discussing challenges with nutrient manage ment and the Chesapeake Bay. “We need to make sure that we have a healthy, vibrant agri culture industry,” she said. McGinty is concerned “when I see the magnitude of the chal lenges of nutrient management standards producers are going to need to try to meet. “I want to find ways in which we can meet them in a way to thrive and maybe find new eco nomic activity. “Meeting these challenges can not fall wholly on the backs of agriculture. The truth is that there are a myriad of other fac tors that lend themselves to nu trient loading in the water.” To meet these challenges, she said, she hopes “to get everybody at the table,” including other headwater states in addition to Pennsylvania. McGinty has been pursuing an option to transfer the air emis sions trading paradigm to the water arena. When meeting nu trient requirements, there would be an opportunity to partner with another business that can reduce their nutrients more inexpensive ly, she said. “I am 100 percent confident that as we get into the program, people will see the cost savings available there and the system will sell itself.” A Better Way To Deal With Cattle Runoff CLAY CENTER, Neb. Elimi nating odors from cattle waste run off is only one advantage of a new, environmentally friendly system de veloped by Agricultural Research Service scientists in Nebraska to handle animal waste. Another benefit of the new sys tem is reduced costs for farmers, since the nutrients will flow from la goons onto nearby fields to fertilize hay. The feedlot at ARS’ Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) in Clay Center, Neb., is situated on top of a foothill. Rainfall runoff from a series of pens within this feedlot is directed to a small basin that runs the length of the pens. The runoff collects in the basin for a short period of time, allowing the solid particles to settle. The runoff is then discharged to a hayfield, where the water and nutri ents are “recycled” to help the hay grow without any additional water or nutrients. The retained solids have to be re moved from the basin once a year. ATTENTION DAIRY FARMERS LANCO Dairy Farmers Co-Op Inc. 1373 Beaver Dam Road, Honey Brook, PA 19344 Lanco Wants You To Check Out Our Numbers fcSf 60 Cent Somatic Cell Premium Broken in 5 segments down to 400,000. 55 Cent Over Order Premium 50 Cent Hauling - No Stop Charges On 4 Milking Pick-Up fJSf Over 800 Members In PA &MD fcSf 7-Fieldmen To Cover All Your Needs fcSf 11-Local Haulers jjgf No Equity Deductions, Marketing Fees, Market Administrator Test Fees or Membership Fees. We are a farmer run and controlled grass roots co-op and milk marketing division of Allied Federated Co-op, Canton, New York. Call us today! We are truly farmers coming and working together. 315-858-0312 - 717-789-9685 - 717-993-6808 Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 26, 2003-A33 Additionally, nitrogen controls are already in place at power plants, so McGinty is looking for ways to encourage the power plant to run these controls year round instead of only in times of high ozone levels, as is the case now in hopes that “the amount of reduction achieved would lighten the load on everyone,” she said. McGinty also discussed the op portunities of biosolid use. She would like to further develop the idea of using biosolids as inputs into biogasification plants, a clean source of energy, she said. She is researching using grant money from the Growing Green er program to help foot the bill. CAFOs were also a part of her agenda. “Some in the environmental community are opposed to CAFOs,” she said. “I tell then that I part company with them on that issue.” According to McGinty, the EPA has a job to monitor and re port nutrient pollution, and she has found that it has been easier for her to work with operations that have the capital, technology, attitude, and resources to change, she said. “I think everybody wants to do the job of maintaining natural re sources,” she said. “The issue of biosolids is on many lawmakers minds. Biosolids, applied correctly to fields, “can convert challenge to opportunity,” she said. But these solids are spread on corn fields as fertilizer, thereby ‘recy cling” them back to the production system. Cattle’s bodies cannot utilize all the nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients contained in their feed, and the excess ends up in the ani mals’ manure. But with the new system, these underutilized nutrients can be put to work as fertilizer to help grow the thousands of acres of com and hay that are planted each year as food for the MARC cattle. This not only saves money on commercial fertilizer costs, but also helps keep nutrients such as nitro gen out of water supplies by reusing those nutrients as fertilizer, rather than letting them wash away to nearby streams or other bodies of water. In the three years that agricultur al engineers have studied the sys tem, there has been no runoff of ni trogen or animal wastewater from the hayfields to the surrounding area.
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