By Andy Yost

Greetings from the desk of Freeborn County’s feedlot officer. I am writing this article to provide some valuable information to local livestock producers as well as crop farmers and the general public. First off, I would like to say thank you for the opportunity to serve you this past year. A couple things to remember this time of year: Crops have been planted and are growing nicely now so application of manure is difficult this time of year unless you have some small grains planted to be harvested in the next few weeks.

Temporary stockpiling of manure is allowed as long as setbacks are being followed accordingly. Three hundred feet is a good number to remember when considering stockpiling. If you have more detailed questions concerning setbacks feel free to contact me, and I will direct you in the right direction. When it does come time to apply manure, if the farmer, producer or applicator could notify me at the Freeborn County Environmental Services Office there is a 21-day air quality exemption for those applying manure removed from storage areas. When calling to notify me make sure to tell me your name, township where the facility is located, start date and number of days for removal, manure application site by township, section, quarter section, as well as a telephone number you can be reached at.

I am in the process of organizing another farm chemical container collection. To participate in this collection, jugs must be triple-rinsed, free from residue with caps and labels removed. If jugs are contaminated they will be rejected. There will be no fee for this service. I am working with the Minnesota Department of Ag, Freeborn County Fairgrounds and an independent hauler to coordinate this event. I am hoping to have this collection toward the middle to end of August. CFS in Mansfield will have a collection in Alden sometime in September for their customers who purchased farm chemicals from them if that is applicable to you.

We have an educational opportunity coming up shortly for producers and the general public to attend. There will be a Southern Minnesota Land Use Expo from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 20 two miles north of Blooming Prairie on Highway 218. This expo will have Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Dave Fredrickson, along with many other elected officials present. Topics to be covered at the expo include field demonstrations of manure application equipment and conservation equipment and presentations by sponsors, elected officials and feedlot staff. A lunch will be provided at noon with a legislative listening session to follow at 1 p.m., with a question-and-answer session to follow.

In closing, I would like to provide my contact information for any questions that may arise. I can be reached in person at the Freeborn County Environmental Services Office located in the historic part of the courthouse on the first floor. The telephone number for my desk is 377-5242 if you want to call. Please be patient if you don’t get an answer right away as I am in and out of the office quite a bit. The Freeborn County website contains quite a bit of information that can be useful to many different people.

 

Andy Yost is the Freeborn County feedlot officer.