The Dairy Decline

It’s the Cows

It isn’t easy to expand milk production in Minnesota. The permitting process to expand or build a new dairy farm is anything but streamlined. While townships and counties have a say over smaller operations, larger operations must play by federal and state rules as well. And because dairy farms are associated with foul odors, and larger operations are considered potential pollution sources, neighbors and environmental groups often step into the fray.

A couple of years ago, Dan Fitterer, a third-generation dairy farmer in Meeker County (about an hour west of the Twin Cities), decided to expand to 140 cows and put in a milking parlor, which would allow him to milk 12 cows at a time and eliminate the bending that’s required in a more traditional tie-stall barn. “Switching to a milking parlor and compost barn will reduce the labor time and make the operation more efficient,” he says.

Fitterer’s target herd size would certainly not make his a “factory” farm. Yet he has spent nearly $50,000 in attorney and consulting fees to obtain a conditional-use permit to expand his dairy. Because Fitterer’s 275-acre dairy is located on Lake Minne Belle, a 540-acre body of water that’s one of the cleanest in Meeker County, the county required him to obtain the permit before breaking ground. Before he could get it, neighbors within a quarter-mile of the dairy had to be notified of his plans. Fitterer’s dairy barn will be set back 320 feet from the lake, and a wetland and minimally used pasture will separate his active pastures from the lake. His expansion plan also calls for a 980,000-gallon manure basin that will need to be pumped out only once a year, because much of the herd’s waste will be decomposed in a new state-of-the-art compost barn.

Despite those precautions, some of his lake-home neighbors caught wind of the expansion and brought their complaints to the county, which eventually ordered Fitterer to complete an environmental assessment worksheet at a cost of $25,000. Even after the county approved Fitterer’s worksheet, a group of 32 neighbors sued the county board of commissioners for not mandating an environmental impact statement. “Two-thirds of the people involved in the lawsuit are non–Meeker County residents,” Fitterer says. “They have a second home or cabin on the lake.”

While Fitterer’s case might be considered unique because his operation borders a popular recreational lake close to the metro area, even more rural areas are often opposed to dairy expansions. Bill Rowekamp can attest to that. Started by his grandfather in 1914 and improved by his father in the 1970s, Rowekamp’s 550-cow dairy near Lewiston in southeastern Minnesota is becoming obsolete. “I want to be competitive, and my dream is to be a part of a larger, modern dairy,” he says.

Rowekamp and his business partner have spent the past four years and $350,000 trying to get the OK to build a 2,140-cow dairy in Ripley Township in Dodge County (between Owatonna and Rochester). Trying to block these plans, the township has put a moratorium on the dairy and lowered its maximum limit for the number of animals allowed in one operation. (The city of Claremont in Dodge County has offered to annex Rowekamp’s site to allow his plans to go forward.)

“Minnesota is becoming a state that is no longer friendly to agriculture,” says Kevin Elfering, director of the dairy division at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. “Some counties that were ag-based now don’t want any ag-related industries. We’re becoming more of an urban state.”