The Rural Voice, 2003-03, Page 46News in Agriculture
Pork producers want NM A
Ontario's pork producers still want
changes in proposed regulations
under the Nutrient Management Act,
Sam Bradshaw, environmental
specialist for Ontario Pork told the
annual meeting of the Huron County
Pork Producers.
Bradshaw told producers gathered
in Seaforth, January 22, that Ontario.
Pork has examined all regulations
based on three criteria: is it practical?
is it based on research? is it
affordable? Based on this assessment
regulations have been classified as
green, which means acceptable;
yellow meaning it still needs work
and red, which should be sent back
for changes before implementation.
The classifications are changing
daily as farm groups work with
government officials, Bradshaw. said,
and he credited Helen Johns, minister
of agriculture and food and Huron -
Bruce MPP with wanting to make the
regulations work for fanners.
"We'll work on them (the
regulations) until we get things
right," he promised.
An area of concern is stiffer
regulations for the construction of
manure storages which Bradshaw
questioned the need for from a
nutrient management aspect. "The
evidence is that for the most part our
storages are sound," he said, pointing
to a research project carried out by
Ontario Pork.
New liquid manure tanks must be
designed by, and their construction
supervised by, an engineer. They
require two levels of containment.
Above -ground tanks will need either
a moat to contain possible spills or
stronger concrete, which might add
one to five per cent to the cost of
construction. (Huron and Perth
County pork producers' associations
are currently funding their own study
into the cost of meeting the
government regulations.)
Liquid manure storages must go
through hydrogeological assessment
which will require a test hole 1.5
metres below the elevation of
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42 THE RURAL VOICE
ct changes
excavation to see the subsoil
conditions. Hydrogeologically-secure
soils are required with a half -metre of
soil between the bottom of the tank
and either an aquifer or bedrock.
Those that don't meet the
requirement must install an
impermeable clay or fabric liner.
On the surface, there must be a
flowpath of at least 50 metres in case
of a spill before the manure could
reach the nearest watercourse.
New liquid manure storages for the
largest farms will be required to have
an engineered monitoring system for
potential leaks with water samples
from monitoring wells to be tested in
a lab. Existing storages must be
regularly inspected by a qualified
inspector. The government has
agreed that for everyone but the
largest farms, the owner can be
trained to do the inspection.
Temporary storage of dry manure
has been an area of concern
particularly for poultry farmers, said
Bradshaw with the regulations
currently saying manure can,,only be
stored in a field for 60 days unless it
is turned. After negotiations it
appears the government might allow
the temporary storage to remain for
up to 120 days, Bradshaw said. "I
think they might get it to the point
where we could agree with it," he
said.
Under the regulations those
applying liquid manure must be able
to monitor the field tiles to watch for
manure getting into the tiles.
Bradshaw agreed that farmers should
be monitoring the tiles but wondered
how this might be done for tiles that
go underground well past the farm
limits.
If the tiles can't be monitored, the
ground must be pre -tilled within
seven days before the application to
close up worm holes and other pores
in the soil or the application must be
less that 3600 gallons per acre.
Bev Hill of Varna pointed out that
this would equal less than a sixth of
an inch of rain, an amount that
normally wouldn't even get to the
tiles.
New tile drainage systems will
require a monitoring system on a
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