News

Slight change to CAFO permits

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced changes this week to permits on large farms.  Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) are farms with typically 1,000 animals or more in Michigan.  Gordon Wenk, Chief Deputy Director for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, says during January through March, farms that are not permitted as CAFOs but are taking their manure will have to follow concentrated nutrient management plan requirements for winter application.

“If you’re going to ‘manifest’ your manure, which is you’re transferring it from your farm to someone else to apply on their farm, that second farm would have to follow the same rules that the CAFO farmer would follow.”

Wenk says CAFO farmers are not allowed to winter spread unless the manure can be incorporated into the field or meets the winter spreading technical standard.

“If you completely ban winter application you end up hurting smaller sized farmers where they don’t have any storage for their manure, so they do a daily scrap and haul, and those farms would be put under additional burden if there was no winter application allowed.”

The change is expected to reduce farm runoff to surface waters during spring melts, and is part of the state’s efforts to reduce phosphorus and nutrient loading.

AUDIO: Interview with Gordon Wenk (4:43 mp3):