Conewago Creek Stream Teams

This is a great program designed to get youth involved in improving local water quality.

Watershed Winds

There is a new newsletter available electronically through Penn State Water Resources website called Watershed Winds.  The goal of this newsletter is to disseminate strategies and practices to improve water quality that are working in one watershed to other areas of the state and country.  The articles range from agricultural practices to municipality programs to how to bring different organizations together.  There are a number of great example of how local watersheds have improved there water quality, and sharing how they managed to accomplish it is something that needs to be shared with others that are facing the same issue.  I encourage everyone to check out the newsletter and share what is working for them.

Dietary Phosphorus and Water Quality

cattle-manager.com

Phosphorus (P) is a very important mineral for both cows and their rumen microbes.  It is involved in almost all metabolic reactions so being deficient can be very detrimental.  However, it is also a very important element in almost all metabolic reactions in plants.  Therefore, as cows eat plants and plant materials they are getting enough P to meet their requirements.  Grains tend to be higher in P compared with forages, and byproducts (distiller’s grains, corn gluten feed, and wheat midds) tend to be the highest.  Because it is so prevalent in plants supplemental P is almost never needed.  

What is the big deal about P?  The issue with P is that, like animals and plants on land, algae also need P to grow.   When too much P gets into waterways either through manure contamination or soil erosion algae grows uncontrollably.  Too much algae in the water blocks out the light killing aquatic plants, which serve as habitat and food supply of higher level organisms.  When this algae bloom finally dies the decomposition of the algae draws oxygen out of the water making it impossible for fish and other aquatic organisms (fish, shellfish, etc.) to survive.  

So how much is too much?  Like the level of any nutrient, the level of P required for the cow depends on her milk production and how available the P in the feed is.  However, in most cases a P concentration of 0.35% to 0.38% of ration dry matter will be enough to meet the needs of the cow.  In the “Reducing Dietary Phosphorus in the Dairy Herd” publication by Zhiguo Wu and Virginia Ishler with Penn State University there is a nice example of how overfeeding P in the ration contributes to higher levels in the manure.  For a cow milking 75 lbs and eating 50 lbs of dry matter, a dietary P content of 0.35% of ration dry matter will result in 1.9 lbs/ton of P in the manure where as a dietary P content of 0.48% of ration dry matter will result in 2.9 lbs/ton of P in the manure.  Because P fed above the level that the cow needs will just be excreted going from a recommended P level of 0.35% to a high level of 0.48% results in the significant increase in manure P levels.  

Higher manure P means that there may be limitations as to where that manure can be spread.  Another calculation from this publication shows that when a cow is fed a 0.48% P diet compared with a 0.38% P diet an additional 12.2 pounds of manure P is excreted over a 305 day lactation.  This higher P diet would require an additional 0.31 acres to spread the manure on compared with the low P diet.  If additional land was not available P would be applied at 14.5 lbs/acre in excess of what the crop could remove and would result in an increase in the soil P test over time. 

Although many have reduced the level of P in their rations, there are still a few that throw in a little extra for good measure.  This is not only bad for the environment, but it is also represents an unnecessary cost.  Deficiency issues are not seen until you get around 0.3% P, and a dietary level of 0.3% P is hard to create using normal feedstuffs.  Therefore, concerns about loss of milk production or reproductive performance due too little P are unwarranted.  

Phosphorus, has, and will continue to, receive a lot of attention, but the positive side is that it is something that can be easily controlled at the farm level.

Feed Management

Feed Management is an excellent program that all dairy farmers should be taking advantage of.  It is a Natural Resources Conservation Service program that is available nationwide, but is receiving a great deal of attention in Pennsylvania.  When farmers apply for this program they can receive $2,000/group per for the first year, $1,500/group per for the second year, and $1,100/group for the third year of the contract.  A group can be the high producing cows, low producing cows, heifer groups, etc.  Farmers can apply for up to five groups on their farm so that can be a good amount of money.  There has been $1 million set aside in Pennsylvania to cover new plan applications so there is plenty of funding available for anyone who is interested.   The payments are to cover the cost of having a feed management plan written by a certified plan writer and the quarterly follow-up that the plan writer needs to do.  In Pennsylvania, the plan writers are trained by Penn State Cooperative Extension and state extension specialists.  The goal of a feed management program is to reduce nitrogen and/or phosphorus excretion by the cows through ration alterations and/or feed management changes on the farm.  These plans are very flexible and tailored to every individual farm, and are designed to be things that the farmer is capable and willing to implement on the farm.  If you are interested in learning more about this program contact your local NRCS office.

Winter Manure Spreading; a Necessary Evil

Winter spreading of manure is not something that is popular with many environmental folks.  This has recently come to a head in Iowa where they are allowing producers to spread manure in the winter for five more years with approval by the state.  However, a local advocacy group, that has been fighting this ruling, is vowing to take note of every bit of manure spread and report any problems.  

The winter months, when the ground is frozen, are the months that see the most manure runoff because the manure and it's nutrients do not have an opportunity to be incorporated into the soil.  Therefore, they sit on top of the soil until the ground thaws.  Therefore, any sudden precipitation or snow melt can lead to manure runoff into local waterways. 

In Pennsylvania, winter manure spreading is still allowed, but with certain regulations.  For example, the maximum that can be spread is 5,000 gallons of liquid manure or 20 tons of dry manure per acre or applied to the phosphorus removal rate of the coming year's crop.  There needs to be 40% crop residue, a growing cover crop, or pasture for manure to be spread on any field.  There may be other rules that apply once the new Manure Manual regulations come out this spring, and the EPA is still working with Pennsylvania to try to eliminate winter spreading all together.

Although many do not like winter manure spreading, including many farmers, building enough storage to last through the entire winter is very costly.  For example, an average concrete storage big enough for four months of storage on a 100 lactating cow dairy can cost around $50,000.  With milk prices and feed costs the way they are finding that kind of money is difficult.  There are cost-share programs available to alleviate the installation costs, but even coming up with the money to cost share is challenging for many small dairies.  

This is a very difficult issue with no good solutions, but for now responsibly spreading manure any time of year is a must.

Another Year Comes to an End

Festive Cow to Bring a Smile to Your Face

Many dairy farmers are giving thanks for surviving another year and hoping to make it through next year.  Recovery from 2009 has eluded many and with lending getting harder and harder 2011 promises to be another tough year for many.  Here in Lancaster County many are wondering what new environmental regulations 2011 will bring and how they will financially deal with what is expected of them.  Changes have already come to many dairies in 2010 when EPA began inspections of farms in target watersheds.  There are more watersheds on the list to investigate and even those farmers not in these priority watersheds will face increased enforcement of current laws and potentially new laws.  However, dairy farmers are some of the most adaptable group of professionals and they will find a way to persevere and continue doing what they love.  So this Christmas while you are enjoying eggnog and cookies think of the dairy farmers that are out there milking and caring for their cows so that you can sit back in your warm house and enjoy the holiday. 

Pennsylvania Watershed Implementation Plan: Impacts on Dairy Farming

Environmental regulations are moving fast and furious and it can be hard to keep up, but all dairy farms in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed will be affected so understanding these new regulations is a must.  The final Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), or “pollution diet”, will be out by December 31^st and will outline the official and final rules going forward.  Because the final TMDL is not out yet this article will focus on the preliminary TMDL and Pennsylvania’s final Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP).  The final TMDL will reflect the WIPs submitted by each state in the watershed unless EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) thinks that the state WIPs will not meet water quality goals then EPA will override the state plans with their own regulations. 

The Pennsylvania WIP focuses on increasing enforcement of current laws.  The PA Clean Streams law requires that all farms, regardless of size, control sediment and nutrient discharges from their farm, which includes from fields, silage and manure storage, milk house, barnyards, and animal concentration areas.  To this end, all farms that disturb more than 5,000 square feet of land are required to have an erosion and sediment control plan (E&S plan), which is similar to a conservation plan.  These plans do not need to be approved at the state or county level, but do need to be on the farm.  As of November 19, 2010 this regulation was changed to include “animal heavy use” areas, require additional BMPs (best management practices) for fields within 100 feet of a stream, require that soil erosion be reduced to the highest amount that can be tolerated and still maintain sustainable crop productivity indefinitely (T), and require an implementation schedule. 

The Pennsylvania WIP also relies on updates to the Manure Management Manual, which will be completed by spring 2011.  The contents of this manual apply to all farms that have animals.  At minimum, farms are required to have a manure management plan that covers collection, storage, and application of manure on fields.  Specifically, it will address overall manure application, winter application, stockpiling manure, manure storage, pasture management, and animal heavy use areas.  The Manure Management Manual will also require farms to apply manure at rates that will minimize phosphorus runoff, unless they can show that the risk is extremely low, such as with soil testing and the P-Index, a tool to determine the potential loss of phosphorus from the soil to waterways by looking at a variety of factors.

Current laws require that farms with greater than 2000 lbs of animals per acre of land to spread the manure on are considered Concentrated Animal Operations (CAO) in PA and are required to have a nutrient management plan that is written by a certified plan writer and approved by the State Conservation Commission or local Conservation District.  Nutrient Management Plans are similar to manure management plans, but are more in-depth and must be reviewed as mentioned.  CAOs are inspected yearly by the Conservation District to make sure conservation plans and nutrient management plans are being implemented.  The rules that apply to CAOs are not new and will most likely not change in a new plan. 

Farms with greater than 700 dairy cows (milking and dry), or CAOs with greater than 300 cows, are considered CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) by the federal government and the state of Pennsylvania.  CAFOs are required to adhere to even stricter laws than CAOs.  Small farms can be deemed a CAFO by EPA if there is a point-source discharge from that farm into a local waterway, which could be something as simple a point leak in a barnyard where material from the barnyard can escape to a local waterway.  The rules that apply to CAFOs may become stricter and it is possible that CAFO rules could be expanded to cover more farms if EPA does not determine that the Pennsylvania plan is sufficient to meet water quality goals. 

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