Pennsylvania knows chit!

Ron/PA

Well-known Member
The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA

February 5, 2012
State mandates manure must be managed

By Rick Dandes
The Daily Item

---- — HARRISBURG -- Anyone who spreads manure on fields or has a pasture, barnyard or feedlot must now have a manure management plan, even if he has no animals and imports manure only for his fields, a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection official said Friday.

This would even apply to an individual who has only one horse, DEP spokeswoman Amanda Whitman said.

"That horse, no doubt, grazes on a pasture and collected manure from the horse may be applied to nearby fields," Whitman said. "Also, the horse most likely utilizes a loafing area or an exercise lot that has minimal or no vegetation These areas are considered animal concentration areas, which need to be properly managed."

And it"s not only working farms about which Whitman is talking.

Sites raising farm animals for recreation would fall under this obligation as they need to demonstrate proper management of these animals. This would include that the manure and any animal concentration areas associated with those animals are being managed consistent with state approved guidelines so that local or regional water resources are protected.

The DEP will be responsible for making sure there is compliance.

"Yes," Whitman reiterated, "we are the agency responsible for ensuring that all operations are complying with this long-standing water quality obligation. This has been a requirement since at least the mid-1980s."

As for staffing, DEP continues to evaluate its current workforce to determine how best to meet this responsibility.

Manure management plans developed under this obligation are not required to be submitted for review or approval, Whitman continued. "So," she said, "there is not a need to staff the department, to the extent needed to review all developed manure management plans."

Plans are required to be developed and used by the farmer in the management of the manure used or generated on site. These plans are to be made available to DEP staff or other delegated entities that may visit the site to assess compliance or in response to a complaint. Whitman said.

The latest revision of DEP manure management requirements address criteria that have always been a part of proper manure management.

"The importance of this revised manual," Whitman said, "is that it provides clarity and consistency to the criteria used to direct farmers in the use of their manure. Some of the specific criteria given added clarity in the revised manual includes:

n Manure application setbacks ranging between 35 to 100 feet, depending on whether additional management practices are implemented.

n Manure application rates addressing both nitrogen and phosphorus. These are determined based on new application rate charts, or using standardized calculation sheets.

n Winter manure application restrictions addressing maximum winter application rates, added setbacks, required crop residue or cover crop on the field, and restrictions on the allowable slope of a field where manure will be applied in the winter.

n Manure stacking restrictions addressing setbacks, field slope restrictions, and length of time the stacks are permitted to remain in a field before they must be spread.

n Pasture management, addressing the need for maintaining lush vegetation with at least 3 inches of growth throughout the growing season.

n Barnyard/feedlot criteria addressing the need to restrict animal access to streams within a barnyard, collection of manure in a barnyard, diversion of clean water from the barnyard, and ensuring that manure contaminated water from the barnyard is collected and spread or appropriately filtered through a vegetative strip prior to reaching a stream.
 
You can bet that it's to appease the EPA and their nutrient diet plan for the Chesapeake Bay. Thanks Obammy.
 
So that's where Jacks##t lives!
We all know who's creating more manure than the animals.
And, do these rules apply to the Amish also?
 
Yes they do. I had an organic inspector tell me a couple of years ago that when they use horses in the field for cultivation and such that they have to put a diaper of sorts on the animal and catch the waste, pile it seperate of the dairy or meat animals, then the inspector has to varify the fact its horse manure before it can pass muster, and this did not come from D.C., it came through California where the prune pickers have put raw human waste on vegetables and created ecoli or however its spelled....Greed will surpass common sense everytime.
 
It's all a part of the 'effort' to "Save the Bay". It covers about 5 or 6 states that are tributaries to the Chesapeake and all the greenies are on board. We've had nutrient management plans here in Md, for about ten years and have to 'update' them every year. Soil tests and animal numbers. Spreader records and manure samples. Can't spread manure during the winter. Lot of it is ridiculous, but some of it was needed because a few idiots would push the point. Our current government wants more power over everything so they can find another way to tax or fee us out of business. That way we can join the welfare ranks and then maybe we will start being grateful to them.
 
They start that crap here in the Great Lakes basin,my boy had better be ready to take it over. I'm too old to give a rats backside anymore.
 
we have to have management plans in WI as well. Used to be only f we mechanically spread but now it also applies to grazers.
They do have free software to do it though....
 
Minnesota, my huge feelot needs to be prermitted. Think I'm allowed 33 animal units, basically I got 20-25 head of all sizes of cattle most of the time.

I'm in a grey area of manure plan, they asked about it during the inspection 3 years ago, I mentioned as how I let the cattle graze cornstalks all winter as snow allows, place round bales in the field, so end up with 3-5 spreader loads of manure a year, I need 30x that much to keep my fields in shape, the cornfield I let them graze is terribly low on P so even the bale feeding isn't building up my feilds.

The new gal inspecting was kinda huffy, the experienced guy that came along kinda figured it out that I got nothing for manure and things were good.

Iowa has much stricter rules than MN......

FSA, USDA, etc are working real hard to get rid of all the folks like the experienced guy that came......

Feds already control navigable waters, they want desperately to gain control of all waters, which means anything low or any swale where water could run at any time.

Folks, food is gonna get expensive, when we have ot import it here in a couple decades. USA farming is going to be put out of business.

Dust regulations, water regulations, manure regulations, child labor laws.....

We will have farming like USSR had in the 1970s. Govt run, poor quality, low yield, little work done.

---->Paul
 
Know exactly whut ya mean. So far, NRCS around here has been nothing less than helpful. Every once in a while some newbie gets froggy, but we're all feeling our way through the regs. Idiots in Annapolis and DC have gotten the idea that one size fits all, and try to make a reg that works on the shore fit someone who is in the Piedmont like we are. I'm usually very short on N & P with cow manure, and the shore is hot with chicken litter. Two different things. But the greenies think it's the same stuff and try to make one rule for both. Runoff has been drastically reduced in the past twenty years with no-til and covers, but there is still a major problem that they are finally starting to discover- muninciple systems have been, and continue to dump more crap into the bay than animal ag. As if we hven't been trying to tell them that for years---
 
I wonder if the State of PA has a manure management plan that covers the deer, turkey, bear, coyotes, etc. that mess all through the woods? What about all the chemicals that make it into the watershed from the conventional farming?

What's the fine for clubbing the hell out of the DEP agent that comes to shut down your operation?
 
Come on guys, Ron show you how to control this. "The DEA is evaluating their staffing" which means they are going to want more money to hire more people. Since this is our country and the legislature work FOR be very specific and demand reduced funding for the environmental protection agencies on the grounds the regulation is choking productivity.
 
Yeah its crazy but theres 2 things you can do.: 1. contact your state representatives and try to get this non-sense under control, 2. Just lay low and there is probably 0 chance they'll ever investigate you unless you are running a big operation or someone complains. Its like the Natural Resources people telling me I have to leave a certain amount of soybean residue when I do fall tillage on some of my ground. Just nod and say yes, yes, yes. Once you leave then you can do whatever you want.
 
I have another question. For all of these years, fish, crabs and oysters have been crapping in the Chesterpeake. When in the hail is someone gonna do sumthin about that?
 

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