Fight Rises on Conservation Money
US - Making a farm more environmentally friendly comes with a cost. Just ask cattle producer John Hall, who plans to spend about $360,000 to replace his open feedlots in Iowa with a set of hoop barns.
20 November 2007
1 minute read
| Ankeny cattle farmer John Hall stands out by one of his cattle pens Thursday. Hall is applying to a USDA conservation program to help pay for replacing his open feedlots with hoop barns, which reduce the chance of manure spills. |
Keeping cattle in the fabric-covered structures, rather than out in the open, should prevent manure from washing off his property. The barns will have a bedding of cornstalks to trap manure. The mixture then will be spread on fields for fertilizer.
Hall hopes taxpayers will foot up to half of the hoop barn cost through one of the most popular U.S. Agriculture Department subsidy plans, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. "It's a good environmental program. It's probably a pretty good economic development program," says Hall, an agricultural adviser to Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Ia. "It will stimulate investment out here in the country."
The program, which helps farms pay the cost of pollution controls, precision irrigation equipment and other measures that conserve soil and water, will be the focus of a struggle over spending in the new farm bill Congress is writing.
Source: DesMoinesRegister
