Editor’s note: This commentary is by Steven A. Judge, a longtime dairy farmer and owner of Bob-White Systems, a dairy supplies company in Royalton.
[I] am writing to alert citizens of Vermont to a new state law that was recently passed, called Act 64 or the Required Agricultural Practices (RAP), a whole new set of unprecedented regulations being imposed primarily on Vermont’s small farms by both the Legislature and Vermont Agency of Agriculture. The stated purpose of Act 64 is to protect Vermont’s groundwater and waterways and I strongly support reasonable efforts to do so. However, in my opinion, the regulations associated with Act 64 are stunning examples of inappropriate legislative and bureaucratic overreach that appear destined to create a complex bureaucratic nightmare.
I have studied the regulations and apparently my four cow micro dairy in Royalton will be regulated as a Certified Small Farm Operation or SFO by the Agency of Agriculture. What does that mean?
I will be required to go through a certification program with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and pay associated fees.
I will be required to obtain four hours of training every five years given by someone in the State and pay associated fees.
I’ll be required to become “certified” and obtain eight hours of training from the State every five years to spread the composted manure from my four cows on my own land and pay associated fees.
Most small farms have a very low impact on the environment. Let’s nurture them and not legislate or micro manage them out of business.
I will be required to keep my little dry stack of composted manure at least 200 feet from any boundary line, private well or waterway instead of the currently required 100-foot setback. Comically, that will put my manure stack on a steep hillside in the middle of the woods.
I will also be required to relocate my dry composted manure stack once a year for three years before I can stack it on the first location again. I don’t have the land to do that. The manure from my four cows is composted, dry and doesn’t leach.
Will my four cows someday be required to become certified to spread their own manure on my pastures as they graze day and night during the spring summer and fall? The main focus of Act 64 should be cleaning up the Lake Champlain and Connecticut River watersheds where there are real problems — especially in the Champlain Valley. Huge 1,000-plus cow dairy farms now line Lake Champlain and dot the countryside.
Many waterways of the Champlain Valley run brown all year long due to pollution from liquid manure and soil erosion largely associated with growing corn in the region’s nonabsorbent clay soils. Decent corn yields in clay require heavy applications of liquid manure and fertilizer. To add to the problem, most of the cornfields are plowed in the fall and left bare all winter so the frost can break down the lumps of clay for spring tilling and planting.
Incredibly Section 5.4 (c) Act 64 only requires cover crops on “Annual croplands subject to flooding from adjacent surface waters.” What an unbelievable oversight. It appears to me that most of the nonabsorbent clay cornfields in the Champlain Valley that are plowed in the fall will still remain open and eroding all winter long through snow, sleet, thaws and early spring rains. The Lemon Fair River, Otter Creek and many other Champlain Valley waterways will still run brown on their way to Lake Champlain.
I now live and farm in Royalton, close to the White River. It is very clean. My family and grandkids swim in it every summer. Sure, the water quality of the White River could be improved (there’s always room for improvement). Geese and waterfowl swimming in the river along with homeowners fertilizing and treating their lawns with chemicals in the White River watershed probably put more pollution into the river than the region’s many small farmers do.
I am not saying that small farms should be allowed to pollute Vermont’s water — not at all. Let’s simply be reasonable and address the problems where and as they exist. Small farms are the growth segment of agriculture all across the country and are largely responsible for the revival of agriculture and local food production in Vermont. They contribute to our local economies, maintain our working landscapes and produce fresh and delicious milk and dairy products for our communities. Most have a very low impact on the environment. Let’s nurture them and not legislate or micro manage them out of business.
Please contact your state legislators and tell them Act 64 and the associated RAPs are simply not acceptable in their current form to you or Vermont. If implemented in their current form they will be ineffective and create hardship and hard feelings for a very long time.
