08/22/2006

'Factory farms' fight image problem, odor

Mass milking, efficiency earn big dairy farms profit

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Record-Eagle/Sheri McWhirter
Dairy cows eat between three trips to the milking parlor each day at Holsum Dairies in Hilbert, Wis.

HILBERT, Wis. — Several large barns stand out on the lush and rolling farmland near a little place called Hilbert, south of Green Bay.

It's where one of the state's largest dairy operations handles 4,000 cows and daily sells 250,000 pounds of milk to a cheese factory that supplies East Coast pizzerias. Holsum Dairies is classified as a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, what critics call "factory farms."

Kenn Buelow manages the enormous farm that's about to become the largest combined dairy operation in Wisconsin when a second farm is opened nearby.

The dairy operates 21 hours per day for milking an average of 3,200 cows, while about 800 rotate through pregnancy. An average of about 500 cows are milked per hour on a rotating carousel, each three times a day.

The operation uses new technologies to reduce the risk of groundwater pollution from animal waste. They've managed to find a way to generate electricity from methane gas, while at the same time creating organic bedding material from the herd's solid waste.

The five-year-old operation is so streamlined and efficient that it will sell air emissions carbon credits for the last three years for a $200,000 profit, Buelow said.

Liquid waste from the animals is sold to area farmers as fertilizer and spread onto local fields when the ground isn't frozen.

"We've had no pollution from here so far, but I would never say we won't have a problem," Buelow said.

The farm has an elaborate system of overflow barriers and back-up pumps, as well as an emergency response plan for any waste spills.

Tom Bauman, runoff engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said officials must consider water quality impacts CAFOs can have, but public concerns tend to include air quality or odor, traffic and lights coming from the large farms, themes common to neighbors of similar daily and swine operations in Michigan.

Bauman said well contamination and fish kills do occur and state officials hope to prohibit the common source: surface application of liquid manure on frozen or snow-covered ground.

He also said there have been a larger number of groundwater pollution incidents from smaller, unregulated animal operations. He said there are about 150 CAFOs in Wisconsin, which have greater potential for pollution than small farms, but have better management capabilities.

"We don't keep records on the other 20,000-30,000 operations out there," he said, although some problematic mid-sized farms may be regulated.

Environmental attorney Andrew Hanson said liquid manure field applications are a "thorny issue" after some recent and well-publicized groundwater contamination cases in Wisconsin.

"We're still learning a lot about liquid manure application ... we're finding that some of these frozen and snow-covered ground runoff incidents occur even though the applications largely complied with state regulations," Hanson said.

He represents clients who have suffered violent illnesses from bacteria contamination in their groundwater wells, some with sludge running out of their taps for weeks.

"It's not fair to say urbanites are moving out to the country and get what they have coming," Hanson said.