Editorial: Spreading limits a needed first step

Issue Manure on farmland Our view Brown County’s plan to regulate manure spreading in winter is a good first step in a long but necessary process

Brown County has taken a common-sense step toward controlling agricultural runoff and its polluting effects.

Pending state approval, it plans to restrict the spread of manure during the winter season from Dec. 1 to April 15. About a dozen wells in the southern part of the county were contaminated earlier this year when manure spread on frozen ground entered the groundwater with the first thaw in spring.

The county came up with a proposal this week to amend its animal-waste-management ordinance after a special committee listened to farmers’ concerns and studied the situation.

“We’re not saying you can’t spread,” county land conservationist Bill Hafs said. “But we want to make sure farmers are putting it in safe areas or are storing it.”

To spread manure in winter, farmers would have to get winter-spreading plans from the county Land Conservation Department. They also would be required to get a county-approved nutrient-management hazard map before spreading in shallow bedrock areas or impaired waters.

Ideally, the county would just ban manure spreading because the phosphorus in the manure is known to promote excessive aquatic plant growth, the slimy green algae in 80 percent of Wisconsin’s lakes.

But that’s unrealistic. Agriculture is big business in Brown County. The number of megafarms is growing and the number of livestock has increased to 104,000, including 41,000 milk cows. At the same time, the number of suitable acres on which to spread manure has dropped because of suburban growth. It takes three acres to accommodate the waste of one animal; the county has only 115,000 acres still suitable for spreading manure.

University of Wisconsin freshwater lakes expert Stephen Carpenter recently concluded in a study that farmers’ routine and excessive application of chemical fertilizers and manure is a far greater problem for freshwater lakes than previously thought. Saying that phosphorus has built up in soil and may foul lakes for centuries to come, Carpenter stressed the need for manure digesters and buffer strips to prevent runoff.

But reversing years of spreading manure on farmland won’t happen overnight. The county’s proposal is a good first step in the process.