4,600 bovines. How many cows are too many?

No. 8: A bigger Daley dairy farm.

The Daley farm at Lewiston, already one of Minnesota’s largest milkers, needed the consent of the Winona County Adjustment Board to expand from 3,000 cows to 4,600. The Board said no. The Board was dubious about Daley’s claim that state-of-the-art technology would protect groundwater. There were unsettling facts. The expansion would double the farm’s liquid manure and wastewater output to 46 million gallons a year and require a manure basin the size of three football fields and 16 feet deep. This liquid waste would sit on top of porous limestone that is highly prone to sinkholes and disappearing springs. Already nobody Lewiston can drink well water because nitrate levels exceed the maximum allowable levels. After the county setback, Daley sued that the Board as stacked against it. Stay tuned.

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