5-12 FB CAFO Manure Blog

 Bloggers are attacking everything…including CAFO operations. I’m David Sparks and I’ll be right back with an example. Saw something in the Farm Bureau news that quoted a blog from Pocatelloshops.com and I want to read it to ya’. It’s entitled

Keeping a secret

And it says “Why does the Idaho Cattle Association want to keep secret the results of feedlot manure surveys by the State Department of Agriculture? L ivestock waste poses a risk — it could leach into groundwater, streams or irrigation canals and increase the levels of bacteria, nitrates and ammonia. And learning that could upset some people who think the state’s streams and drinking water should be closely guarded.?     The public may be out of luck. The Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee last week voted 6-2 to bar access to the reports on beef cattle feedlots across the state. If the bill becomes law, do you think the public will find out if cow poop is being properly managed? We’ll just have to take the feedlot operators at their word.

Here’s a businessman’s response. Rick Stott, from Agri Beef  has an interesting perspective: “Fundamentally what we’re talking about is there are trade secrets that are important for any business. I often ask the question how many other businesses do you know that are required to publicly disclose how much inventory they have in their warehouses and there isn’t one. Yet the feedlots are required to disclose not only how many cattle that they have which is inventory, but also how much other natural resources like manure, fertilizer, natural composts, those kinds of things, all of which are inventory items.”

You decide and let us know at aginfo.net.