Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Opa]

Digital event timers have actually came down quite alot in the last couple of years. A single outlet timer for indoor use can be had for less than $15 and a dual outlet outdoor use timer for less than $30. I have several and that I bought at Home Depot.

 

[RaZ]

Bridget Patrick
State Assistant Administrator
Risk Communications Specialist
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
6th Fl Constitution Hall
Lansing, MI 49090
Desk: 571-241-2669
Cell: 517-243-3963
[email protected]


Ms. Patrick sent an e-mail to several of us who attended the Ag meeting yesterday. She is looking at having a meeting next week to discuss our issues and perhaps plan a course of action. She has invited a few other MDA people with urban planning and veterinary background.

I will attend for sure as I volunteered to join the task force if it comes about. It looks like we are getting through to the proper authorities in this game of chicken.

 

[chicken grandma]

Thankful for all of you who are working on this! Thank you!

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Problem is Intentions don't really matter it is what is written in black and white that counts. The 1/4 mile between animal housing and a neighbors property line can stop a lot of would be animal owners from enjoying live stock even those with 80 acres. that and having 5 or fewer non farm homes with in a 1/4 of a mile. That would put me out even with my little 12 acres. would eliminate all residential owners and give those against us ammunition. ...

I went to the one here in coopersville, and this is what i tried to point out too This isn't "just" chickens here we are talking about, it's small dairy, beef, any small meat producer! Really disappointing. Horses too, if you read the fine print! And pigs, forget about it. Only one is allowed for small acerage.

Hi,
I'm new here--I was at the MDARD meeting yesterday and spoke. I'm actually a commercial farmer with 80 acres in Washtenaw County ..............But those 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile radius circles in the site selection GAAMPS are huge areas of land when you're talking about even a hundred chickens (an entire Township is only 6 miles square).

Another thing about the Site Selection GAAMPS is that in the definitions section, "non-farm residences" means any residence not associated with that particular livestock/farm operation. So even though many of the neighbors to my farm actually are farmers themselves, some of them even having livestock, they count as "non-farm residences" for the purposes of those Site Selection GAAMPS tables.

Glad to be here and to have met some of you yesterday.

This i did not know Crap, i am the only chicken keeper on my stretch.

Bridget Patrick
State Assistant Administrator
Risk Communications Specialist
Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
6th Fl Constitution Hall
Lansing, MI 49090
Desk: 571-241-2669
Cell: 517-243-3963
[email protected]


Ms. Patrick sent an e-mail to several of us who attended the Ag meeting yesterday. She is looking at having a meeting next week to discuss our issues and perhaps plan a course of action. She has invited a few other MDA people with urban planning and veterinary background.

I will attend for sure as I volunteered to join the task force if it comes about. It looks like we are getting through to the proper authorities in this game of chicken.

Is the meeting in Lansing?

Really, bottom line don't be hooked in by their smooth jargon. If they didn't want to single out small operations, they wouldn't have modified the GAAMPS to the extent of including 1-49 animal units, since it wasn't included before. If this was only about banning chickens in the city they could have just changed the zoning for it, and not messed with the numbers or added the "space" restrictions.

Every one of these modifications were asked to be made by the state's housing and development comittee back in 2010, without us knowing. We were not even given an opportunity to vote as is the usual custom, and they want to export to china.................fishy i say.

 

[RaZ]

From Ms. Patrick's e-mail...

"How about meeting at Cleary’s in Howell, Michigan on Friday, November 16 at 2:30 p.m.? I will be working, so I will not be ordering any cold refreshments. I recommend their food. Here is a link to Cleary’s website: http://clearyshowell.com/ For future meetings I will check with the County Extension Office."

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Where the heck is that???

For the MI peeps, here is the link i found last month outlining the requests put forth the the state representatives . Now in the beginning "background" section all seems well, seems like they actually like ag! Get down to the "issues" paragraph and you see where they are firmly shutting the door on the little guys
http://www.planningmi.org/downloads/rtfa_board_adopted_policy_feb_19_2010.pdf

If you read through the changes they are now voting on, they have adopted each and every one into the new wording.

I really think if we could get this to the news, it could make a difference. There are so many types of farmers affected, all of the ones i talked to hadn't even heard of it and were skeptical!!! I wanted to contact channel 17, but i got derailed because i couldn't find a map showing where the "zoned ag" land was, they have a 3 tier system where you are either zone 1, 2, or 3??? I thought you either were or weren't? I didn't want to look like a dummy so i didn't say anything for fear of them not taking it serious. Did you get your map done Raz? This stuff is scary, considering that most of the farmers producing meat in MI are probably considered "small scale". Where are we supposed to buy our meat? Is there not going to be fresh and affordable? This at a time when our state is at an economic slump. The odd thing is , they are really promoting dairy right now, and this has the possibility to affect small dairy operations too!

I do have the name of a reporter who regularly covers environmental and agricultural stories, if anyone is braver or better informed than me!

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/11/state_legislator_looks_to_amen.html
I found this article

This is a new article and they either have no idea about the proposed changes or they are able to work around them because they want to change the urban areas where they would be building the farms/gardens to ag zones...

Or maybe they are trying to pull attention away from the proposed changes...

 

[RaZ]

Did you get your map done Raz?

I do have the name of a reporter who regularly covers environmental and agricultural stories, if anyone is braver or better informed than me!

I have scoured the Michigan data base for the GIS info describing agriculture zones in Michigan and I can not find anything. I have the federal maps but they simply put a dot on a county if it has commercial (large scale) agriculture. I pointed this out at the meeting yesterday but I doubt that it registered with anyone. The meeting on the 16th might have a planner present so I want to question him about this oversight in the state database.

Have the reporter contact me.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Is it 1-5 animal units or 0-5 animal units? I was under the impression it was 0 as that included the 0-100 chickens most of us have. One animal unit equaling 100 chickens? Gah, I hate these legalese.