Moving forward on our lagoon...

Success!  Today we received our final approval from the county board of commissioners for our manure lagoon!  Now all we need to do is secure financing and we can call the contractors to move forward with this project.  It's been another long and busy road to reach this point.  The process started over 3 months ago, when we finalized the design of our lagoon.  Our lagoon will store enough manure, waste water, run off water, and rain water for our 240 milking cows, a future additional 160 more cows, and 50 dry cows, plus an additional 8% extra....so basically, we're prepared for anything!  This lagoon design had to be approved by an engineer, which we hired, and then sent to the county feedlot inspector for approval.  After a number of changes to meet specs for the engineer and the laws of our county, we finally had plan.  Then we had to revise our manure management for the additional "future" storage.  That manure management plan had to be presented to the commissioners as well as the plans for the lagoon.  We had a hearing last week with our county board, and then today we had final approval for the plans.  Thankfully, we were not opposed by any neighbors, but we've been talking to all of them about this project for over a year.  Only one commissioner had a handful of questions for Jon, so basically pain-free. 
Now we are excited to move forward, in hopes that this winter we can enjoy the convenience of not having to haul manure, and the ability to only have to apply manure to our fields in the fall, when we can maximize those nutrients as a natural fertilizer!

Shutting down rumors & stating the facts...

Well it looks like the 'ol Rumor Mill of the local small towns are up and running once again.  As our family enjoyed the area county fair this week, several of us were pulled aside and asked some peculiar questions regarding our dairy farm.  As it turns out, these questions were based on rumors which were started by some confusion regarding a legal notice in the newspapers.  So, let's start with the rumors:

• No, we are not milking 3 times a day, we just have some odd hours of operation, therefore the lights never really shut down.  Also, often times, such as tonight, Jon or I are out in the barn treating or caring for a cow or calf.
• No, we are not currently milking 600 cows...we only have 240 milking cows on site, which are shared between Jon & his dad.
• No, we are not adding cows, and we are especially not adding 600 cows.

So, now for the facts....

• This week we have a meeting with the county commissionors to approve the final stage of our expansion/updating project.  Recall, that last year at this time we were refused a permit to build a lagoon since our proposed lagoon did not meet county regulations, but we were granted a permit to build a new barn.  Now, we are seeking a permit to build a new lagoon, one which will meet the requirements of the county law (providing us 12 months worth of manure storage for our cows).
• But the legal announcement states that we're building for 400 cows.  That is in fact true.  We're building a lagoon that will be large enough to store 12 months of manure for 400 cows.  However, we do not have 400 cows, we only have 240 cows, and plan on staying at that size for several years.  The truth of the matter is that since the permitting process is such a battle, we decided we'd build an oversized lagoon, which allows us the ability to build another barn for additional cows in the future without having to add a "mini" laggon to the proposed lagoon....otherwise we would be adding lagoons over and over again, and that's not practical.  BUT...we want to abide by the law, so we're being up front and honest.

Seems like once the fire got started, it burned way out of proportion!  I am glad that so many neighbors and friends were willing to ask us in person.  We're definitely open to answer questions and addressing concerns.  We're looking forward to this proposed lagoon for several reasons, but the primary one is the environmental issues related to manure.  The county granted us the right to haul manure everyday last year, but this is not practical from a time management stand point nor is it from an environmental stand point.   We're looking forward to being able to better control and manage our manure nutrients, aiding us in growing excellent crops to feed our cows.  We're also looking forward to hauling manure only in the fall, when we can control the field conditions more readily.  So...I hope that cleared the air, stay tuned for more updates.

Following the Rules.....even though they make no sense

Well this week has been quite a week of roller coaster emotions!  Our week started out with a HUGE downer!  On Monday, Jon attended the County Board of Adjustment meeting, to present our plans for our new construction.  As part of that construction, we were hoping to build a lagoon (large lined storage area for manure) to store about 10 months of manure from our milking and dry cows.  The current county law states that farms (all livestock farms) over 300 Animal Units must have 12 months of manure storage if they choose to build manure storage.  Since we are over 300 Animal Units, we needed to appeal to the Board of Adjustment for a variance to allow us to have a smaller sized lagoon.  The reasons for the smaller size were many, the largest one is the fact that a small dairy of our size has a difficult time affording that much of an investment.  We also thought we could appeal to the board, since 10 months of storage is MORE than what we have currently, and would allow us go from weekly manure application to bi-yearly manure application (spring and fall applications).  Unfortunately, after a valiant fight from Jon, we were defeated, 3 votes to 2 votes.  Completely distraught, Jon called me.  "Now what?!?!" We were in despair!  This project was going to make the lives our cows more comfortable, as well as improving our own.  Now those plans came to a crashing halt!
Jon contacted our County Feedlot Inspector to see if we had indeed run out of options.  SUCCESS!  One small loop-hole was found.  If we agreed to build a lagoon for 12 months of manure storage in the next 3 years the County Planning and Zoning Committee would let us build our barn without the lagoon this fall.  Our manure would need to be hauled out to our fields, according to our manure management plan, on a daily basis.  This alone makes no sense to us.  We would have thought it would be better to have 10 months of manure storage, rather than none at all, but apparently our county's law doesn't read that way.  The reasons the Board of Adjustment gave were valid, but we do believe we addressed them.
The Board's primary concern was making sure to not set a precedent for others to come before the board.  We were the first to try for a variance on this law, and it looks like we might be the last.  The other concerns included hazards from hauling manure on county and township roads in the spring and risks of overflowing the lagoon.  Ironically, even though the Board of Adjustment believed we were a risk; neighbors, friends, fellow dairymen, and our suppliers have all expressed support for our previous plans.  It was really touching to have a visit yesterday with our dairy equipment dealer, who stopped specifically to see if there was anything he could do to help us with our hurdle.
So, for now, we have officially finished the financial paperwork for the project, changed and amended the permit applications, and are patiently waiting for next week and we find out if the County Board of Commissioners will give the "go ahead" in addition to the bankers.  So...we wait, hoping for good news instead of roller coasters!

God Bless Good Neighbors!

Not enough can be said about having good neighbors.  So often in the "rural" areas, we depend on good neighbors.  It's so much more than walking over to borrow a cup of sugar or glass of milk....it's depending on them when you're really in a pinch.  I can't count the number of times we've helped pull a neighbor out of a snow bank, helped chased cows back into their yards, or helped fix a flat tire.  The best part....is that our great neighbors repay those same favors back! 

On Wednesday, Jon was working diligently to finish the last of our 4th cutting of alfalfa.  We had some much needed rain on Monday night/Tuesday morning which delayed harvest.  I needed to leave to the MN State Fair on Wednesday, so Jon was working solo, with help from some of those great neighbors (and family too!)  Wouldn't you know it! Right before I was about to leave, I got a call!  Jon, "Do you have Greg's number?" Me, "Yeah, why???" Jon, "We've got a problem, that chain I was going to fix when we finished alfalfa broke and we only have 4 hours of chopping left" Me, "Hold on, I'll get it"  Minutes later, Jon goes flying by on the 4-wheeler, headed to Greg's place.  Turns out our good neighbor Greg had a spare part that we needed to fix our silage bagger!  Lucky for us, he was willing to let us have it, and replace it later.  Without Greg's help our alfalfa would have become too dry for silage before we could have drove 1.5 hours to get the replacement part.  We are definitely grateful for Greg's help and more than willing to pay him back!

The other "neighbor" issue on our farm is also a good one!  As we have been working on the next step for our dairy farm, we have also been working on renewing our permits to have dairy cows.  Yep, you got it!  We have to apply for a permit to have cows on our farm.   It's not a right to have cows, it's a privilege!  Part of the permitting process is to go to each of our neighbors to notify them of our plans and of the public county meeting, where we will find out if our permits will be approved.  The great part about notifying our neighbors, is that it gives us another opportunity to talk to them about what's going on at our farm.  Jon's been especially enjoying the conversations about how we care for our cows.  We know living next to a dairy farm isn't always glamorous.  Our cows make manure, and manure stinks.  We try to be conscientious of when we haul manure and where we haul it.  We also know that when we are in the middle of harvest, our tractors tend to make a lot of dust on the roads.  We are SO GRATEFUL for understanding neighbors!  How great it is to talk to them about improvements we want to make to be a more "neighbor-friendly" dairy farm!  We also make sure that all neighbors know we have an "open door" policy.  Any time our neighbors might want to stop for a visit or stop to talk about a concern...the door is always open!  We value our neighbors, and want to make sure that they can value us as well!  God Bless all of our Good Neighbors!