News
Large dairy farms not to blame for phosphorus runoff
The Dairy Business Association says large dairy farms are getting unfairly blamed for phosphorus runoff into Green Bay. DBA Dairy Policy Director, Laurie Fischer says Wisconsin dairy farms with more than 700 cows are classified as CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations). As CAFOs, they are required to have permits which allow zero discharge of any phosphorus. Smaller farms are not subjected to the same standard.
DBA questions reports which have focused on the increase in cattle in Brown and Kewaunee County. “The inclusion of Kewaunee County is perplexing since it has a very little Green Bay shoreline,” says Fischer. “Almost all of its rivers and streams drain to Lake Michigan. Four of our 72 counties did have an increase in dairy cow numbers, but only two of those counties are in the Fox-Wolf Watershed. The modest increases in dairy cows in those counties (7.4 percent in Brown and 3.4 percent in Fond du Lac) are more than offset by the massive declines elsewhere in the watershed.”
Fischer contends that even if agriculture provides 45.7 percent of the phosphorus load in the Lower Fox River; that means nearly 55 percent is coming from other urban sources. She says finger-pointing is just going to undermine efforts to reduce the bay’s phosphorus load.
BigAg begins its final assault on small farms. Not good.