Kewaunee County Board Supervisor Lee Luft is hopeful the board will address a growing issue regarding manure spreading and storage this winter. At least two Kewaunee County farms have had to do some extra clean-up this month due manure applications running off their fields, including one incident occurring on Christmas Eve near Kolberg in the town of Brussels. Frozen and oversaturated fields are also taxing farmers’ manure storage limits, which for some operations are supposed to hold up to six months. The Kewaunee County Board was originally going to talk about a number of different options at its last meeting, but it was taken off the agenda to make sure there was enough time to discuss it and information was accurate before sending it off to Governor Tony Evers. Luft says either the amount of manure produced needs to drop or storage capacities have to go up.

It is not going to get any easier for some farmers when the county reenacts its Public Health and Ground Water Ordinance, which forbids manure and other waste spreading on land with less than 20 feet of soil from January 1st to April 15th.

Photo submitted by Don Freix