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| Members of
the NCGA Corn Board, NCGA staff and the Corn Marketing Program
of Michigan staff tour the Larry Nobis farm. |
NCGA Member Works Harder to Promote Stewardship, Environmental Protection
for Dairy Operation (7-7-03)
National Corn
Growers Association (NCGA) Production and Stewardship Action Team
member Larry Nobis strives to ensure his work is above reproach. As
a result of his desire to run a top-notch operation, his dairy farm
in Saint Johns, Mich., is not only within the standards set by state
and federal regulations -- it exceeds them.
“We
know we’re being observed and we know it’s the right thing
to do to be good stewards,” said Nobis. “We don’t
want to do anything that’s going to harm the environment. When
the environment is damaged, it’s going to hurt generations down
the line, as well as generate more laws and regulations.
“We’re
working on some other environmental issues,” he continued. “We
have over a thousand animal units, so we’re under Concentrated
Animal Feeding Operation regulations and we’ve got to go through
all the Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP) regulations,
meaning we’re zero discharge.
“As
far as manure application, we are doing some different things. We
want to continue to apply manure for most of the year, including when
we have frozen ground. We’re working with buffer strips along
the ditches, a combination of vegetative and tillage buffer strips,
as well as working more and more with cover crops.”
Nobis was
vehement in his claims that he does nothing special, despite all the
extra work he made for himself to exceed the existing state and federal
regulations.
“As
far as the dairy, we work very closely with Michigan State and it
seems like we’ve got one trial or another going on all the time,”
he said. “It covers everything from production, trying to get
more milk from the cows, to their reproduction and herd health.
“What
we’ve done in the state of Michigan is encourage voluntary programs,
such as the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Program (MEAP),”
said Nobis. The Corn Marketing Program of Michigan was instrumental
in the set-up and promotion of the MEAP.
“It’s
different than what a lot of states have. Many states have an environmental
assurance program and it’s pretty much just a checklist, but
in our case, what we do is we spell out what we have to do, then we
go through the checklist and do what we have to do. The CNMP provider
will come to our farm and he will look it over and he will tell us
what we need to improve on.
“In
addition, the final step of the program is someone from the department
of agriculture comes out and looks at our CNMP and looks over the
operation. If we are in compliance with all the rules and regulations,
we are then environmentally compliant.”
Because he
runs such a clean, environmentally friendly operation, he has been
able to change some outsiders’ views of the livestock industry.
One such conversion took place with the bus driver who drove the NCGA
Corn Board to the Nobis farm during a recent tour.
“That
was pretty interesting,” Nobis said with a laugh. “He
was a former teacher and football coach and was very convincing and
very truthful as to why he had become a vegetarian. He had had some
health problems which were leading him in the direction of eating
healthy, but he had also heard some stories about what goes on at
operations like ours and the alleged cruelty directed at the animals.
He came along for the tour and several of the Corn Board members said
they spoke with him and said his eyes had been opened up as a result
of the tour.
“We’re
a family farm and it’s very obvious when you walk around here
that the animals are treated very, very well,” he added. “They
have a lot of comforts some people don’t have. That bus driver’s
eyes were definitely opened up.”