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In
response to the Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) report on the MPCA’s proposed
amendments to the 7020 feedlot (and related) rules, issued in December, the
agency is currently addressing the ALJ’s recommendations. The report is
available on the Office
of Administrative Hearings webpage. Within it, the ALJ approved a majority
of the amendments as initially proposed; however, certain defects were also
found, together with suggestions for correcting those. Staff who are working on
the rule anticipate bringing the Order Adopting the Proposed Amendments to the
MPCA Citizens' Board for a decision during their March meeting. Presuming a
favorable Board determination, and after completing a few more procedural steps
with the Governor’s Office and the Office of Administrative Hearings, the Notice
of Adoption of the amended rules could then be published in April or May. As
identified on the Feedlot Rulemaking webpage, the MPCA has
proposed these amendments to align the rules with statutory changes made by the
legislature in 2011, to remove obsolete rule requirements and address other
statutory changes, and to provide clarification to certain existing rules.
 MPCA feedlot staff hosted a trade show booth and participated in programs at recent farm conventions: the Ag Expo Jan. 9 in Mankato, and Pork Congress Jan. 14 and 15 in Minneapolis. Staff answered questions, provided information about the feedlot program, and distributed publications such as "Manure Application Rate Guide," "Applying Manure in Sensitive Areas," and "Manure Nutrients - Short Plan." At the Ag Expo, Assistant Commissioner Rebecca Flood participated in a panel discussion about agriculture and water quality. A the Pork Congress, Wayne Cords provided some of the instruction for a Commercial Animal Waste Technician workshop. Other staff attending included Sara Isebrand, Allie Riemer, Dana Leibfried, Mary Connor, and Forrest Peterson.
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Horse Expo April 25-27
The MPCA feedlot program is registered for a display table in the coliseum at the Minnesota Horse Expo April 25-27 at the State Fairgrounds. Pasture and manure management, and feedlot registration are some of the issues for education and information.
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Feedlot program staff changes
Dana Leibfried has moved from the feedlot program in Meeker County to the MPCA feedlot staff in
the Mankato office. Courtney Ahlers of the MPCA St. Paul office is taking a leave of absence from the feedlot
program from late January/early Feb through the end of the legislative session. She will be working as a legislative liaison with assistant commissioner Kirk Koudelka. Mary Creech is leaving McLeod County, going to Scott County to work in the Household Hazardous Waste program.
Board of Animal Health
Annual Report
The Board of Animal Health annual report is posted
on-line. You may also request hard
copies of the report by sending an email to animalhealth@state.mn.us.
CFO annual reports, reviews
Feedlot program delegated counties are working on annual reports and preparing for annual reviews, beginning Feb. 1.
 PCA staff serve as bell ringers
Members of the MPCA feedlot staff East unit helped celebrate the holidays with bell ringing at a Salvation Army red kettle in Mankato. From left: Kim Brynildson, Steve Schmidt, Courtney Ahlers, Randy Hukriede, George Schwint, Wayne Cords, Sara Isebrand, Paul Brietzke, Don Hauge, Allie Remer.
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 The Minnesota Board of Animal Health reminds exhibitors of livestock that animals entering all classes of exhibition need to be officially identified. The Board is offering free official ear tags to help exhibitors meet the requirement. The Board of Animal Health rules require official identification of all exhibition animals except for swine entering slaughter classes and water fowl. Exhibitors are responsible for officially identifying their animals before bringing them to the fair. Additionally, anyone placing official ID in livestock must keep records. The Board has coordinated efforts with the University of Minnesota Extension to provide free ear tags to 4-H exhibitors. Individuals showing animals through the 4-H program should contact their local extension office for more information. Birds and poultry entering exhibition may be identified with a wing or leg band. Exhibitors showing livestock in all other classes may obtain free official ID by calling the Board at (651) 296-2942 or ordering on-line at www.mn.gov/bah. For a complete list of Board-approved official ID, visit www.mn.gov/bah. - Board of Animal Health news release Jan. 8.
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 All feedlot owners and operators with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits are encouraged to check their permits for applicable requirements for manure application onto frozen and snow-covered soils.
After Dec. 1, NPDES permits prohibit applying liquid manure to frozen or snow-covered soils unless there is an emergency situation beyond owner control. If an emergency occurs and liquid manure is applied to frozen or snow covered soils, the feedlot owner must call the State Duty Officer within 24 hours of the application. The field where the emergency application of manure occurred must be identified in a manure management plan previously approved by the MPCA.
NPDES-permitted sites applying solid manure on frozen and snow covered soils after Dec. 1 must not apply manure when there is active snowmelt or when there is a probability of more than .25 inches of rain forecast. There is a 300-foot setback from sensitive areas, and fields must be pre-approved in the manure management plan.
All producers should plan ahead and apply manure in the fall (when it can be incorporated into the soil) in the 300-foot setback zone around sensitive areas. Several websites provide information about soil temperature for the 50-degree or below requirement at a depth of six inches: Department of Agriculture, U of M-Waseca, U of M-Lamberton, and U of M-Crookston.
U of M-Extension article: What's the big deal with winter spreading of manure?
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A workshop on 'livestock truck roll-over response' will be held Thursday, Jan. 23 in Fairmont, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 920 E. 10th St. The presenter is Jennifer Woods, a livestock handling specialist from Blackie, Alberta, Canada, who has been delivering the livestock emergency response course throughout the United States and Canada since 1998. She has assisted fire departments and emergency responders at livestock accident scenes and is certified in technical large animal rescue. The workshop is being sponsored by Martin County Planning and Zoning, MN Pork Producers Association, MN Cattlemen's Association, and MN Turkey Producers Association. Please RSVP to 507-238-3242, wendy.chirpich@co.martin.mn.us, or bloed004@umn.edu. There is no fee, and space is limited to 300. Lunch will be provided by MN Pork Producers.
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Training workshops approved by the Department of Agriculture for Commercial Animal Waste Technicians have been scheduled at the following locations. Pre-registration with sponsors is recommended or required. Topics include CAWT license update, regulatory updates, nitrogen in waters, biosecurity, and Discovery Farms program.
- Jan. 29, Sauk Centre City Hall, Todd and Stearns SWCDs, 320-732-2644, or 320-251-7800x3;
- Feb. 20, Best Western Victorian, Minnesota Commercial Applicators Association, registration required at www.mnmanure.com;
- Feb. 27, Mankato National Guard Armory, SE Minnesota Feedlot Officers, 507-444-7488;
- March 12, Slayton Pizza Ranch, Rock and Murray counties, 507-283-8862, or 507-836-1164.
- March 14 (pending), Steele County fairgrounds, SE Minnesota Feedlot Officers, 507-444-7488.
The initial workshop was held Jan. 14 at Minnesota Pork Congress. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture issues three types of Commercial Animal Waste Technician (CAWT) licenses: 1) Company license; 2) Site Manager license; and 3) Applicator license. Prior to renewing a license, operators must attend a recertification workshop once every other year.
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Annual report forms for livestock farms with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits are now available on the MPCA feedlot program website. Completed forms, including land application records, are due March 1. Links to the form are located on the feedlot program main page, and permits and forms webpage, or download the document. Paper copies of the report may be requested by contacting the MPCA regional offices. The office phone numbers are listed on page 5 of the report. For farms that do not transfer manure, land application records can also be generated using the MPCA excel based Manure Management Planner under Create Crop Year Records. These record forms may be used and submitted instead of the Records for 300 or More Animal Units form. A link to the planner is located on the feedlot program Nutrient and Manure Management webpage.
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The third in a three-part series of webcasts on nutrient recovery from manure treatment systems on Jan. 17 examined topics related to swine systems, co-digestion, scale and efficiency. It featured Curt Gooch, Cornell University; Brian Paulsen, Murphy Brown; Dana Kirk, Michigan State University, and Sasha Rollings-Scattergood; Anaergia, Inc. This and previous webcasts are available on the archive webpage.
Future webcast topics
February - Gasification technology for manure and algae biomass
March 7 - Water Quality Index for Agricultural Runoff (rescheduled due to government shutdown)
March 21 - On-Farm Manure Research Results (applying manure to standing crops)
April - climate change topic TBA
As always, you can check out the recordings of past webcast at our webcast archive and view the schedule at upcoming webcasts.
Winter Spreading. With many winter manure spreading bans going into effect, it seems appropriate to review some of the research that has looked at risks of spreading manure on frozen and snow-covered ground. Check out these resources to learn more: Archived webcasts: Winter Spreading, What Are the Risks? and "Risk Assessment Tools & Advisories" | W2W proceedings: Will Bans Reduce Runoff Events?
Manure Expo. The 2014 Manure Expo will be held July 8 and 9 near Springfield, MO. More details and information will be released as they are finalized. Past Manure Expo information can be found at http://manureexpo.com
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Natural resources inventory provides snapshot of nation's agriculture
NRCS
Minnesota cow-calf days launch Feb. 10
The Farmer, Jan. 22
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Jan. 23: Livestock truck roll-over emergency management class, Fairmont.
Feb. 11: Crop nutrient management conference, Verizon Center, Mankato.
Feb. 25-27: Central Minnesota Farm Show, River's Edge Convention Center, St. Cloud.
March 11-12: Willmar Ag Show, Willmar civic center.
March 18-20: Midwest Poultry Federation convention, St. Paul RiverCentre.
April 25-27: Minnesota Horse Expo, state fairgrounds coliseum.
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The MPCA Feedlot Update welcomes
news submissifrom partners about, projects, people, and upcoming events. Email
submissions to forrest.peterson@state.mn.us. Please note that
the MPCA has switched to a new service, called GovDelivery, to deliver the
Feedlot Update. To ensure delivery of these messages, please add mpca@public.govdelivery.com to
your address book or safe sender list. Past issues of Feedlot Update are
available on the feedlot program publications webpage.
Forrest
Peterson
Public Information
Officer
MPCA-Willmar office
320-441-6972
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