EQIP, TSP Protect Water Quality on Minnesota Animal Operation

Protecting water quality is a priority for Kent Dornink.

The Preston, Minnesota, pork and beef producer is utilizing Environmental Quality Incentives Program dollars to install a grass waterway, close and replace two unpermitted manure storage basins and develop a manure management plan.

Dornink built the first unlined earthen storage basin in 1989 and the second a couple years later. He built the basins himself, without cost-share dollars.

In recent years, he came to realize the fragility of the karst typography that is found in much of southeastern Minnesota, and began searching for options to close the unpermitted basins.

"I'm the first one who drinks the water if something happens," Dornink said.

EQIP fit the bill by providing cost-share dollars to help close the unpermitted basins and construct replacement manure storage. The earthen basins were closed Aug. 9, with the manure applied at agronomic rates to the land beyond the basins.

The new concrete pit measures 41 feet wide by 145 feet long and is eight feet deep. It has nearly 39,000 cubic feet of storage capacity, which will provide Dornink with at least 12 months of manure storage. The concrete basins provide more ground water protection and more storage space, Dornink said.

Having covered manure storage will also keep out the rainwater and reduce odor, he said. Reducing odor is important to being a good neighbor and keeping out the rainwater is an economic advantage because it costs a penny a gallon to empty the basin, be it manure or rainwater that is hauled.

Part of the concrete basin will be covered by a hog nursery and finisher, which Dornink will build. He hopes to have the structure up by Christmas.

Cost-share dollars aren't paying for the building, said Sue Glende, district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Fillmore County.

The remaining 41 feet by 96 feet will be covered by solid slabs, Glende said. Manure from the new structure as well as existing buildings will flow into the manure storage basin.

Dornink chose to use technical service providers to complete the manure storage project. It was primarily a timing decision, Dornink said.

The NRCS couldn't get to the project for 18 months, whereas a TSP could start in six weeks, he said.

Technical service providers were brought online with the 2002 farm bill to help the NRCS with the increased workload as a result of increased EQIP funding, Glende said.

Dornink and Glende encourage producers to do their homework before going with a TSP.

A TSP will also help Dornink complete the manure management plan for his 433 animal unit farm.

"Our goal is to have everybody who's in livestock using a manure management plan," Glende said.

The plan includes calibrating the manure spreader, analyzing the manure, testing the soil and giving credit for legumes.

Dornink said he's going to make a couple changes to his plan to account for beef manure. He has grid sampled his whole farm and is combining the data with a manure analysis to determine manure application rates. He'll receive incentives to continue with the plan for three years and said he'll likely keep using it after that.

"We were doing it before, we just hadn't written it down," Dornink said.


From AgriNews, Rochester, Minnesota