Rules aim to end stink over farms' smell

MILWAUKEE - Cow 169 produces an average of 80 pounds of milk each day, a little more than nine gallons, on Bill Bruins' Waupun farm. She eats 150 pounds of feed -- corn, hay, soybeans -- every day to maintain her 1,500-pound bulk and generate milk. Of course, what comes in, goes out. She also produces her share of manure -- lots.

She and her bovine compatriots are at the center of proposed rules that, among other things, would attempt to quantify just how stinky some farms can get in Wisconsin. It's a growing problem as city folks move out to rural areas and realize they don't like the smell while at the same time dairy farms are consolidating and getting bigger.

One animal, however, does not equal one animal unit. A beef cow is one unit and a dairy cow is 1.4 animal units -- because they create more manure -- while a dairy heifer that weighs between 400 and 800 pounds is 0.6 animal unit and a 55-pound pig is considered 0.4 animal unit.

Source: JS Online

1 March 2005