[AT] Clean Water Rule

[John Hall]

Kind of hard to say what my thoughts on it are without knowing what it 
means to me. I've read a few articles and they all agree it will take a 
few years to repeal and replace the law. From what I have read, the law 
had a lot to do with fertilizer run off.  Most of us on the list that 
participate in agriculture are so small, we'll never know it---maybe.

  Where I live if you apply fertilizer to over 50 acres, then you have 
to have a license/permit/nutrient management plan. Not certain if that 
is state or federal--I think it is state and based on the particular 
watershed I live in. Now for the last gazillion years, I'm thinking 
Clinton era or Bush Sr, the feds have pushed us on waterway sizes. If 
you signed up a loooooooong time ago (as we did) the restrictions were 
less--smaller waterways. Now if you are caught farming too close to a 
ditch/waterway/creek etc, you'll politely be reprimanded if it appears 
you have just encroached upon the boundary area--unless you just 
blatantly said "screw you" and planted 6" from the creek---I drive by 
one farm that somehow gets away with farming right up to a ditch that 
feeds a pond. They literally farm so close it will make your butt pucker 
driving that close to the ditch--how do I know you ask---we tended that 
same farm in the exact same fashion 30+ years ago.

How does the fed encourage some of these rules you might ask? 
Subsidies--if you don't play nice, you don't get yours--pretty simple. 
When tobacco was on the poundage (federal allotment) system, the feds 
had a LOT of muscle to encourage you to farm the way they wanted. I 
wasn't raising tobacco nor was it being grown on the farm, but since the 
farm had an allotment, the feds got to tell me how to farm by 
threatening consequences to the landlord.

  One neat thing they did close to 20 years ago was to encourage 
everyone to go to no-till farming where feasible. All you had to do was 
sign up forms saying that you wouldn't use any tillage for xxxxx number 
years. In return, you got so much $ an acre for every acre you 
farmed--with a maximum limit of course---to be used toward the purchase 
of no-till planting equipment. In other words the feds paid a healthy 
sum for many corn, wheat, and bean farmers to stop tilling the land and 
adopt a much better practice. I actually think this was  a win for 
everyone. Practically everyone here is no-till now so the amount of 
muddy water running out of fields has been cut WAAAAAAY back---I'm 
guessing 75-90%. Another win is for the consumer. It takes less money to 
no-till, so the crop can be raised cheaper, which means your groceries 
are cheaper. This is definitely one time I think the feds muddled in 
farming and got it right.

  One last thing I have noticed. I buy all my fertilizer in bags. The 
last 2 or 3 years have seen the bags have a warning to clean up 
fertilizer from non-target areas when it is applied by homeowners. 
Remember me saying if farmers apply nutrients (fertilizer) to enough 
acreage they have to play by rules? Homeowners do not---too small of a 
user, same as small farmer. So I may put 300lbs of fertilizer on my hay, 
while right next door you can apply the same analysis at a rate of 
600lbs. Now of course 1 yard doesn't destroy the environment. But a 
whole dang subdivision behaving in this fashion is way bigger than a hay 
field, and that is a problem.

So how do we fairly regulate protection of our water supply? I don't 
know and neither does the feds, but they have been working for several 
presidencies trying to do so. I think there is no perfect solution and 
will require everyone to bear the burden, one way or the other. In the 
meantime, lets all just use some common sense.

By the way, I used a 45 year old tractor to spread fertilizer on hay 
land last Sat. It performed just as good as a new tractor!

John Hall

On 2/28/2017 8:33 PM, Dave wrote:
> I’ve heard it discussed/criticized before by many who are on the LIST and farming, but I’m curious as to thoughts on the EO overturning the Clean Water Rule today
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