A Bayfield County committee is unveiling its ideas for overseeing large-scale farming in the area, with a requirement for concentrated animal feeding operations to get an operations permit among its recommendations.
The committee has been studying what impacts concentrated animal feeding operations may have on groundwater, surface water and more, at a time when an Iowa-based company is planning to build a farm for roughly 26,000 hogs in the area.
Committee member and University of Wisconsin-Extension Ag Agent Jason Fischbach said its main recommendation is that the county adopt an operations ordinance.
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“That would require operations with 1,000 animal units or more to get an operations permit from the county,” he explained.
Fischbach said those seeking a permit would have to show the farm wouldn’t cause pollution or a nuisance.
“In addition, they will have to provide evidence of a similar CAFO that’s been in operation for at least 10 years and has not caused pollution or a public or private nuisance,” he said.
Public meetings on their recommendations begin this week. After that, the full county board will vote whether to adopt them.
A spokesman for Reicks View Farms declined to comment on the proposed ordinance.
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