tree hugging city slickers createing rules for the farmers

njduck

Chirping
8 Years
Jul 15, 2011
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Over the past few years the government has been createing guidlines under the roose of recycleing. Basically it has to do with water quality. The big section that has to do with us farmers is animal waste. the guidelines deal with how to dispose of and store animal waste, also pasture. depending on the size of the operation it can become very expensive to comply. manure has to be composted for 45 days prior to spreading on a field. a requirement of a concrete pad with 3 walls that are block or concrete. also shrubs need to be planted around the composting area so it is not noticeable. Manure cannot be spread with in 150ft of any water source or any field with a grade of greater then 1.5%.
Pastures cannot have any natural or man made ponds, streams, creeks or other water sources. They must be fenced off not allowing the animals within 50 or 100ft of the water source. a filter strip planted to filter any run off. oh yeah the 1.5% grade again to keep water from going into the water source.

mind you when you look at the water quality map all of the agricultural areas already have better water quality then the urban and city areas.

To top it all off, city people who support this whole crime against farms and farmers show up to the meetings, they say really stupid things. They enjoy leaving the suburban area and going for drives in the country. They don't want to look at manure piles or smell manure that has just been spread on the fields. 2 famous quotes "This is a free country and I shouldn't have to smell cow manure when I drive through the country side" (if it is a free country why does the farmer have to follow rules to suit your monthly sunday drive). The best quote ever "Everyone knows green beans come in a can." (no matter what you can't argue with that statement)
 
My favorite was a slogan I read on here some time ago, along the lines of, save the animals, buy your meat at the grocery store....
 
OMGOSH!! I'm so with you!! I moved from the city to the country. I love the country.

Some folk want our eggs, our beef, our vegetables, etc. Then they want to complain about the poop that.comes along with the job. I've had it!

The worst part is that A LOT of people don't even know what they are missing. They think the CRAP they buy in the stores is normal. I gave a woman at work a pound of our corn-fed ground ANGUS beef, she told me that she thought it tasted weird and "How come there wasn't a lot of fat dripping off of it?"
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REALLY?!?!!?

Wait until they start selling cloned meat in the stores! I personally would rather eat the manure from my cows than any CLONED MEAT!
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(OK that's really gross... I would rather not eat manure at all - which is why we farm!)
 
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These regulations have all existed for quite some time now and are easy to comply to, don't require an immense amount of expense, make sense (fresh manure wreaks havoc on crops by upsetting chemical/mineral balances and 45 days is a very short but reasonable time to compost it).

Much of the changes to the countryside have been related not to 'big brother butting in' but city dwellers moving out to the country and changing farm land into mixed use land, with farms and housing developments and mcmansions sharing the same area. But it isn't just mixed land use. Farmers have been concerned for a long time with conserving topsoil, and while some farmers are very progressive around here about contour ploughing and stripping, others are not - those who refuse to get with the times are a problem. And in many cases it is the Amish farmers around here who really are progressive with contour ploughing, etc.

Truly the 'clean green' farming issues started with the Great Depression in the 1930's when dust storms brought to light the dangers of letting not-so-caring people do just what they please on the land. A few years of drought revealed the dangers of uncontrolled land use.

Since then, since the 1930's, the US has been trying to become more educated and knowledgeable about clean green farming.

So many long term farming areas have severe degradation of runoff quality and groundwater pollution - farmers, hunters and fishermen are concerned about this. It is not just a 'big brother' issue. In a great many cases, it is the small producer and family producer who is negatively effected because big land holders flaunt the rules and damage the small-holder's land by run off, spray over, and erosion.

I see nothing wrong with any of the regulations the OP complained about. They are all necessary for our current situation of mixed land use and none represent excessive expense. None are new regulations, either. To suggest this is some recent change is simply false.

The only extra thing I've heard of round here is that a large boarding stable that keeps about 100 horses was required to make a wider gravel drive back to their manure bins. They have very large dump trucks pick up their manure, and one agency required them to have a similar gravel drive to what other similar-size-truck-serviced areas have to have - a drive wide enough that two trucks can pass each other.

I've had such drives built - big rock and then limestone. Not paved or concreted, just has to be wider.

It really is the larger commercial businesses that have to make the costly alterations.

For the 'little guy' and the family producer, there are very reasonable and few guidelines. THey do, however, include, in this very heavy clay and abundantly rained area, requirements to manage pasture mud - this has affected some pinhookers and low grade auction businesses who cram a lot of horses into very small areas. People who are over-stocking their land are affected. People with a sensible number of animals are not.
 
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I am a small family farm. i believe that haveing to put in a 20x40 concrete pad with with 3 side walls 3ft high plus shrubs is a little much. that is for 8 animal units. a animal unit is 1200lbs. if you go over 15 animal units then you have to be inspected by the state, also the size of the pad increase with each animal unit. we have spread it on hay fields every summer since I can remember. when we do pile it up, we do it n a corner of the pasture out of sight. what does this hurt? My feeling is the following, if my cows, ducks, chickens, horses or any other farm animal cannot poop near or in a ditch. Well the government better figure out a way to trap every wild duck, bird, deer or other animal to make sure they don't poop in the water ways either. Like I said the water quality is better in the rural areas then it is in the suburban and industrial areas. why should not be allowed to use an area of the farm because of ditches. If i pay the taxes on it, it is mine.
This is why i just put 20 acres in soil conservation I will take $$$ for nothing. get a check every year for 15 years to let the land sit unused, just cut the grass. best part is since my ducks and geese free range so they got plenty of free range. so I left the home grown beef industry and went to ducks annd geese. takes a whole boat load of them to make 8 animal units.
It is just frustrateing to me. When you run a small family farm which make up 40% of the farms in the US. They come up with rules and regulations that you cannot afford to do. A small farm cannot afford to have a huge overhead. I tried when you spend every day off of your full time job on a tractor, just to cover payments. That is buying used equipment. I am lucky that my full time job is fire/EMS so I work 24hr shifts, 1 day on and 3 days off. Makes a great schedule for farming full time too.
 
I cannot stand city slickers! They move out to the country to get out of the city and have a "country life" then complain about the heavy farm machinery going down the road, the late nights us farmers have to work and bla bla bla.
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Ahh the city slickers....
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I have always had a huge problem with them. They want to "experience farm life" then hate everything about it but instead of going back to the city they turn the peaceful existence that I had into city life. I like tractors driving down the road, I like that kids get up at the crack of dawn to feed the crowing roosters, heck I like the crowing roosters! We had a couple move next door to us recently because they had a house fire at their home in town and decided that they need to move outside of the city limits for a bit to relax until they can get the house redone and move back in... My roosters start to crow BEFORE the sun makes an appearance and it "disturbs their sleep and the children's sleep" Well why did you move in next door to us then? It's messy it's smelly but it's the best home I have ever had. They told us that we will have to keep the chickens cooped up so they can sleep... no thank you. Then they said the ducks feathers are everywhere so we have to move them to the back yard so they don't get any on their lawn... no thank you. My chickens are in their own element and there are no "city ordinances" to tell me that I can't have roosters and I don't know if the neighbor realizes it but if their dog would quit catching and eatting birds in their front yard then they wouldn't have lot of (grey) feathers in their yard (we have pekins
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) And don't get me started on what they say about our other neighbor's cows! The next project between us and the cow neighbors is a couple of pigs
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on that sentiment, you'll like this article. I LOVE it!

The Redneck Stonehenge.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,397625,00.html

I seen a few years ago where another guy did that, but it was many more cars and he wasn't pulling them out.

our township committee passed new ordnances a few years ago against livestock. If you live in my town and don't have atleast 10 acres you are not even going to have 1 chicken. Basically you have to be farm assessed, which is 5 acres or more. Next your pen or pasture fence has to be 100ft from and property line. You have to have a 4 acre pasture for any animal and additional 2 acres for each animal after that. If you bring in 25 animals at 1 shot you have to have it approved by the township first. All this even if you are a farm and following the best management practices set forth by the state. So technically when I order chickens or any other fowl from McMurray hatchery I am breaking the law, because of the 25 bird minimum order. I also have not moved my pasture fences, they are still on the property line.
 
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I had 2 neigbors move in like that, 1 actually lives at the back side of the farm. she has to use our lane to get to her property. She likes all the animals and the whole farming thing. This is great, but she doesn't like hunting season, turtle season, or when a steer would go missing. We out right fought for 5 years. I reminded her that 3/4 of her front yard was my property. Then after time she realized this is what goes on when you are on a farm. We get along great now. She even use another acre, that we don't use and keeps the grass cut. If I could keep her from rescueing dogs it would be perfect. She has 8 and they have a problem of getting out and running all over the farm. Well the other neighbor is living in fear, because I told him if he didn't like my farming operation now I would become a contract hog farmer and bring in 100 hogs over night, thus is why there is the 25 animal rule
 
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