VOLUME XXI, NO. 4

April   2011

New Southwest Regional Dairy Center To Be Unveiled May 5

Southwest Dairy Day Is May 5th

Watch For The Bosque River Coalition Because They Are Watching You

Barbeque Benefit And Auction For Bob Schouten

Activist Use Courts To Twist Laws Against Farmers, Says U.S. Rep. Peterson

New Southwest Regional Dairy Center to be unveiled May 5

By Sherry Webb

   The much anticipated Tarleton State University (TSU) Southwest Regional Dairy Center will be officially unveiled on Thurs., May 5, at a grand opening ceremony at 10:30 a.m. in conjunction with Southwest Dairy Day held on the new Center’s grounds.

   Dr. Don Cawthon, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, his assistant Dr. Sam Curl; and Dr. Barry Lambert, TSU/AgriLife Research animal scientist, have worked closely on the new center with Dr. Todd Bilby, AgriLife Extension dairy specialist, who is also responsible for bringing together Southwest Dairy Day, along with several others.

   “This is a great opportunity to join Southwest Dairy and the grand opening of the Southwest Regional Dairy Center,” Bilby said. “It’s a chance for everyone to visit the show, explore the new dairy facility and learn of the many benefits it brings.”

   The new Southwest Dairy Center has been made possible through a joint effort of Tarleton Dairy Advisory committee members, Tarleton and AgriLife Research Administration and State Rep. Sid Miller who played an integral part in helping to secure the initial $11 million funding.

   “We are very excited to be nearing the grand opening of the Southwest Regional Dairy Center,” Lambert said. “The Center will provide important infrastructure to support the educational needs of students and faculty in the southwest United States.”

   Southwest Regional Dairy Center is a Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) permitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for 600 cows. Lambert said the wastewater permit was submitted to the TCEQ for approval by CIRRUS Engineering firm of Dallas, Texas. Cottonwood Creek JV, with offices in Dublin and Midlothian, is the general contractor.

    Key features of the Dairy Center are a state-of-the-art, 24-cow GEA Westfalia Surge rotary parlor installed by Josia Cortez of Hico, Texas. The rotary will milk 300 head of Holstein and mixed breed in the upcoming first phase of the operation. The center also facilitates a 300-cow free stall barn and stanchions with plans to expand it to a 600-head free stall in the next phase along with a special needs barn, a calf/heifer barn and commodity barn.

    “We are finalizing a partnership with a private dairy producer who owns his cows and will run the milking operation under an operator’s agreement with the university,” Lambert said. While the academics will be left up to a staff of Tarleton instructors, professors and extension specialists, Lambert said the advisory board feels strongly about forming a public private partnership with a producer in order to more closely link teaching and research to the dairy industry.

    For wastewater handling, the Dairy Center will provide a settling basin with a sand settling area and a lagoon to serve as a retention control structure (RCS).  “The settling basin is the only separation we will use…no mechanical separator,” Lambert said. “Composting is a possibility but otherwise solids will be used as fertilizer.”

    Wastewater will be recirculated onto crop fields. Through a partnership agreement, all of the solids and effluent application fields are located on adjacent AgriLife Research property with a center pivot and approximately 30 acres of Tifton 85 Bermuda.

     The Dairy Center provides direct access for student observation and for the public.

     “We especially want to make sure the public is aware of the Dairy Center and its uses for continuing education, human-interaction with animals, visitor observation and regularly scheduled tours,” Lambert said. He added the center will be an open and transparent facility to enhance public knowledge of where milk and other dairy products are produced.

      The overall impact of the Tarleton Southwest Regional Dairy Center is expected to draw students from Texas and other southwest states. It will be the only university-affiliated teaching and research dairy in Texas and will support extension, outreach and public education/awareness opportunities. It is also considered critical to supporting the sustainability of the existing dairy industry in central and north/northeast Texas as well as the expanding industry in the southern high plains, including the Texas panhandle, New Mexico and other surrounding states.

       The research facilities provide for an animal metabolism unit and laboratories that include ruminant nutrition, sample processing, reproductive physiology, and toxicology.

       The  Dairy Center will provide hands-on educational and internship opportunities in agriculture, veterinary medicine, environmental science, natural resource management, food science, engineering and business for undergraduate and graduate students.

       Also available will be resources for basic and applied research in dairy science, environmental science and engineering and field testing of new equipment and technology, and opportunities for continuing education for dairy and service industry representatives.

Southwest Dairy Day is May 5th

      Be sure to attend this year’s spectacular Southwest Dairy Day on Thurs., May 5, in conjunction with the Grand Opening of the Tarleton State University (TSU) Southwest Regional Dairy Center. Dairy producers and the general public are encouraged to attend the informative and educational Dairy Day event that will be held on the new Dairy Center’s grounds, just off Hwy. 281, from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.  The one-day event is to include allied industries who will display their products and latest technology at booth exhibits.

      Two DOPA credits are available to dairy producers who attend the two scheduled demonstrations at Dairy Day. The demonstrations include, “Processed Wastewater Management” and “GHG in Animal Agriculture: What’s the concern?”

Watch for the Bosque River Coalition because they are watching you

You just thought our downstream neighbors had laid off of the dairies.

Not so. Nowadays, no matter if you are the best of the best dairy producers on the planet, you must follow the rules or you will not be allowed to operate and your permit will go away.

It may sound simple, but it is not.

This is a tale about the City of Waco’s newest endeavor, the Bosque River Coalition (BRC).  It appears this organization is stronger than ever in its efforts to get rid of every single dairy in the Bosque River Watershed. The nightmare from a few years ago has begun all over again and grown worse, if anything.

 Who knows what possesses the minds of these people of who recklessly and without abandon continue to focus their attention against Bosque River dairies? It is evident they don’t care if a dairy is somebody’s livelihood that has taken years and generations to fulfill. They don’t seem to care if they destroy families---real people—whose hopes and dreams are reduced to shambles. They don’t seem to mind if little Johnny no longer has a future in the dairy industry.

None of this seems to matter.

But, it should, with the millions of dollars---yes, millions---that has been spent by these people on trying to extinguish Bosque River dairies. It would be quite interesting to learn if Waco taxpayers even have a clue?  So far, the money does not seem to appear in the City’s budget, so where is it?

These dairy-destroyers have been hammering at Bosque River dairies for many years now, starting out with former Mayor Linda Etheridge who seemed to have an unknown vendetta against dairies or maybe she just wanted to shake things up. In any case, she left behind a giant legacy that consisted of blaming  the dairies for Waco’s stinky water, claiming this is due to unwanted dairy nutrients that travel down the Bosque River and dump into Lake Waco.

The City boldly took up where Etheridge left off and eventually sued 14 dairies in the Bosque River watershed. While one may be fooled into thinking the outcome of the lawsuit would settle things and that would be the end of it, no such luck.

The BRC is taking on the City’s task and in full swing.  Although the organization describes itself as individuals and entities that share a common interest of improving water quality in the Bosque River and its watershed and committed to promoting projects to improve their quality of life----this group is definitely on a mission.

The organization does not hesitate to remind folks it is “our river, our water, our life.”

The lawsuits against the dairies ended with nothing resolved except for the few concessions some of the dairies made to satisfy Waco’s demands. During the entire court proceedings, no scientific evidence was presented by the City of Waco that phosphorus and other nutrients in Lake Waco were coming from Bosque River dairies. ,

In fact, in the May 2008 edition, the Texas Dairy Review reported the City of Waco in 2007 was responsible for several big spills of its own into Lake Waco. The first spill was about 100,000 gallons from an overloaded sewer main while the second spill was more than five million gallons caused from a broken interceptor. The-then TCEQ Commissioner Larry Soward took the City to task, grilling employees and driving home his point about the City’s own spills while they continued to file complaints about alleged dairy runoff and pollutants.

During and following the lawsuits, dairy permits came up for renewal. The City took this opportunity to drag-out the process by protesting permits.

The TCEQ commissioners eventually decided since Waco was 80 miles downstream, it had “no standing” in the matter and began renewing dairy permits that had been tied up for four years or more.

The City of Waco grew pretty hot under the collar and sued the TCEQ.

This is where the BRC comes into play. To fix the 80-mile downstream “no standing” matter, the City formed the BRC with Stephenville resident Charles Markum as president. Markum is a familiar name to dairy producers since he was a charter plaintiff in the lawsuits filed against the dairies. Other familiar names who are involved in the BRC are Waco City Manager Larry D. Groth and Assistant City Manager, Wiley Stem, of whom both played integral parts in the dairy lawsuits.

Now that the BRC has a legitimate Erath County address, the group can achieve proper “standing” when it wants to file a complaint against the dairies to the TCEQ or protest a permit renewal. The group, who meets in Stephenville or neighboring towns, is recruiting members from Erath County to join their efforts.

           The BRC is supporting two projects in the North Bosque River watershed. It supports the City of Stephenville’s efforts to establish a wetland in the North Bosque River, just downstream of the wastewater treatment plant. This cooperative project with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will also include a hike and bike trail along the North Bosque River through the city.

           The BRC also supports the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research (TIAER) at Tarleton State University in a federal initiative to address emerging environmental issues.

So, the nightmare continues.

Agricultural engineers warn dairy producers to pay close attention to TCEQ rules and make certain their dairies are in compliance. Compliance history is one of the reasons for the latest permit revocation that involved a dairyman near Green’s Creek.

As noted on the BRC’s website, its board of directors had unanimously decided to support one of their members, the Mayfield family, who owns a ranch along Greens Creek and alleged pollution from a neighboring dairy had damaged their property.

The Mayfields claim Kiker Lake, located on their 2200 acre working cattle ranch, cannot be used to water livestock due to overgrowth of algae and only occasionally used for irrigation. The Mayfields said meetings with the TCEQ did not provide any assurances the alleged runoff from the dairy would stop and they had every intention of suing under the Clean Water Act, had the case not been resolved.

Current information reports the adjacent dairy has sold its cows and is no longer an operating dairy.

Dairymen should take notice the BRC is offering its membership the opportunity to become a Certified Water Quality Monitor through the Texas Stream Team. Scheduled meetings for the training are on April 24, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hico City Park and on June 19, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Stephenville City Park.

One puzzling and amazing thing---in spite of all its allegations against dairies that supposedly pollute Lake Waco, its website is another thing entirely and a clear-cut contradiction that leaves one to ponder.

The website advertises the many features of Lake Waco that includes swimming, skiing, fishing, camping and even brags about its 51 species of fish. The recreational mecca actually points out Lake Waco is fed by the North Bosque and Bosque Rivers and several smaller creeks in the area. It also states the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) rates Lake Waco as excellent for crappie, largemouth bass, catfish, white bass and sunfish.

Benefit and auction April 9 for Bob Schouten of Hico

           The Schouten name is pretty familiar in the dairy business---all the way from Holland, where the family originated, to California and later to Texas. But, when you’re born into a family of 15 children, that alone is enough to make the Schouten name somewhat famous.

          One of those 15 children, Bob Schouten, of Hico, is second to the youngest. Born in 1956, he knew from an early age his destination was already determined and regardless of anything else, he would be in the dairy business along with many of his brothers, sisters, their offspring, and so on.

           Bob grew up in the Gardenia area and in Escondido in southern California. He dairyied with three of his brothers in that area but in 1995 made the big move to Texas where brothers Mike and Pete were already working. At that time, Mike owned two dairies in Stephenville and Pete owned a dairy located nearby at Selden. Bob partnered with Pete on another dairy near Iredell but when Pete pulled out, Bob dairyed by himself until 2001 when he sold it. Bob went to work fulltime during the week for Mike, who had moved to Hereford, and for Pete on a part-time basis on the weekends.

          “Now, I’m just trying to get cancer-free,” Bob said, who travels to Waco to get radiation treatment Monday through Friday. Schouten has been battling cancer for more than a year and recently received news he would have to begin a series of 40 radiation treatments for which the family has no insurance.

          To help defray Bob’s medical expenses, a barbecue benefit and auction will be on Apr., 9, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Hico Junior High in Hico.  BBQ, beans and potato salad will be served for $10 a plate or any additional donations. Children under 5 are admitted free of charge and live entertainment is scheduled.

          Accounts are open for donations at Bank of America in Stephenville, and in Hico at First National and First Community banks.

Activists use courts to twist laws against farmers, says U.S. Rep. Peterson

          Congressman Collin C. Peterson (D-MN) has courageously stepped up to the plate and pegged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for performing sloppy work, mostly at the American farmer’s expense. Peterson is the chair and ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee and offered this Op-Ed entitled, “Time to Clean up the EPA.”

By U.S. Rep. Collin C. Peterson

Farmers and ranchers are not happy with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They see an agency that does not understand agriculture and imposes burdensome and confusing regulations. EPA may be the federal agency charged with enforcing the Clear Air and Clean Water Acts but when it comes to agriculture their policies are unclear and the process murky at best.

Responding to questions about the reason and need for some of their farm-related regulations, EPA says they are only doing what the courts tell them to do. The fact is that environmental activist groups often sue the EPA but the cases don’t even reach the point of a judge’s decision. Instead, there seems to be a pattern of an activist lawsuit, followed by an EPA settlement, resulting in new EPA regulations to comply with the settlement.

Environmental groups use the courts to twist laws against American farmers and agricultural production. This is resulting in policy decisions being made by activists, bureaucrats and lawyers without consideration of what’s best for American agriculture. This pattern has been going on far too often and many times without adequate transparency.

This is no way to make policy.

This so-called “sue and settle” strategy keeps the process in the dark and often ignores producers until after the fact. Farmers and ranchers working and living on the land have a right to a seat at the table when policy decisions are made especially when the settlements frequently contain provisions critical to agriculture and rural communities.

EPA needs to reclaim a commitment to transparency and accountability. The process is seriously flawed and it is leading to damaging results out in the countryside. I challenged EPA’s Administrator, Lisa Jackson, at a recent hearing to answer some important questions about what’s happening.

For instance, how does EPA decide what lawsuits they will settle and who will participate in settlement negotiations? How much taxpayer money is used to pay activists who sue the government? How frequently do these agreements with activist groups lead to new regulations? How closely does EPA follow the language in settlement agreements when proposing new rules? Does EPA consider the impact on farmers and ranchers when negotiating settlement agreements? And, how much does public comment factor into finalizing rules based on settlement agreements?

EPA’s mission is to ensure that we have a clean environment but I wonder if their backdoor manner of making regulations is simply muddying the waters. I hope to get some answers. 

1521 C Lingleville Road, Stephenville, Texas 76401
800-344-4901 — 254-965-2255 — Fax 254-965-6202 — Cell 254-967-2190
Sherry Webb, Publisher

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