LEWISTON, Minn. – An organizational meeting has been called for Tuesday to rally opposition to a plan to allow factory-scale dairy farming in Winona County. Tim Ahrens, the organizer, expressed alarm that County Commissioners Steve Jacob and Marcia Ward have managed to make a new agenda item of the county’s limit on herds to 1,500 animal units. Jacob and Ward have long allied themselves with the Daley Farm near Lewiston to expand to 4,500 units, Ahrens said.. The Daley plan has been turned down before in numerous forums, including the County Board itself. Ahrens’ meeting is a 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, at the Land Stewardship office, 180 East Main Street in Lewiston, or by zoom.
Talking points against larger mega-herds
Talking points being developed for a telephone campaign against expanding the Winona County max on herd sizes:
> County Commissioners Steve Jacob and Marca Waard have been working with Daley Farm a long time to try to remove the animal unit cap from public policy. In effect, they want to steal the public’s preference as expressed in current policy going back to 1998 –and to do so to the benefit of fact9ry-scale farming, not the public good.
>Animal unit caps are used by counties all over the state to protect economies, and drinking water and to give ordinary farmers a chance to be competitive.
> The commissioners are trying to argue the animal unit cap needs to be lifted because the number of livestock feedlots is declining in the county. To suggest that building a mega-farm in Lewiston will save a small livestock farmer in Wilson, or Oak Ridge, or Altura just isn’t true. We need more farm families on the land raising livestock and running dairies — not more concentrated operations that only serve the interests of the few.
> We’re already paying for our drinking water problem in the form of major municipal well projects. Altura, Lewiston, and Utica have all had water problems.
> Jacob and Ward say they want to lift this cap for the economy. But if we don’t protect our animal unit cap., We’ll be paying for our water problems over and over and over. Just like some folks in Colorado are doing, just like some folks in California are doing, just like some folks in North Carolina are doing.
> Jacob and Ward say they want to lift this cap for the economy. But if we don’t protect our animal unit cap., We’ll be paying for our water problems over and over and over. Just like some folks in Colorado are doing, just like some folks in California are doing, just like some folks in North Carolina are doing.
> Big feedlots actually hurt the local economy as more families are driven out of farming — our schools suffer, our churches, our Mai Street businesses. Feedlots extract our resources and profit at the expense of those closest to the operation.
> Air quality declines and with more uncontrolled emissions. so does the health of local residents.
>Water quality declines, especially in karst country where even rain events quickly flush contaminants in to our wells, our municipal water systems, and our streaMS and rivers.
> For every 1500 animal unit dairy, we could have eight to 10 more farm families making a living and supporting our local economy. The average size dairy in Minnesota is 180 to 200 cows. Dairy farmers are making a living with 125 to150 cows. We need more dairy farmers, not fewer.