Indiana neighbors snitching on farmers' manure practices

HAGERSTOWN, IND. — After smelling it for about two months, Elvie and Phyllis Lakes began to wonder how much longer tons of chicken manure would remain piled up in a field near their house.

They complained to Wayne County Commissioner Mary Anne Butters, who contacted the Office of Indiana State Chemist (OISC) on March 20, 2015, a Friday.

OISC, which started an investigation the following Monday, determined the 272 tons of manure had come from Rindler Poultry in St. Henry, Ohio.

“It would get smelly,” Phyllis Lakes said in an interview. “On windy days, it made an odor. We figured with summer coming, it was going to be really bad.”

Union City, Ohio, farmer Troy King, who farmed the property on Pierce Road next door to the Lakes, told OISC investigators he had hauled the manure to the site on Feb. 27 and constructed a berm around it on March 8. The person King had hired to apply the manure reportedly had been unable to do so because of bad weather.

The state chemist fined King $100 for transporting the manure from Ohio to Indiana without a license and issued him a warning for failing to cover the manure with tarp or to create a berm around it within 72 hours of dumping it.

“It was kind of nothing,” Lakes said of the fine, but at least OISC forced King to get the manure applied.

Dozens of Indiana farmers, haulers, applicators and distributors of manure were warned or fined last year by OISC for violating the state’s commercial fertilizer law. The purpose of the law is to protect waterways and ensure nutrients aren’t wasted.

The violations included allowing beetles to escape from large piles of poultry manure onto a neighbor's house, applying manure to frozen/snow-covered ground near a waterway and discharging manure into a woods.

Like King, some of the violators blamed the weather.

Many of the violations involved tons of poultry manure piles left uncovered and without any tarps or berms to prevent runoff in wet weather. Odor is often the source of complaints. In Randolph County, police were called to a farmer-neighbor manure dispute.

Wayne County resident Barbara Sha Cox from Indiana CAFO Watch says overall Indiana "has come a long way" in manure management in recent years. She applauded OISC for investigating complaints "within a reasonable length of time."

She is seeing a lot less poultry manure, including Ohio's, being left unprotected on Hoosier farm fields longer than the 72 hours allowed by law.

"It seems like more are coming in and staging it and spreading it all in one day," she said. "That's a huge difference. In the past, driving from Richmond to my farm in Randolph County, if you would get off on any road, you were guaranteed to see huge piles. When you drove around, you couldn't miss it. Now, I can't find any. I think we are gaining on it."

OISC received 114 fertilizer complaints last year, up from 73 the year before, according to state fertilizer administrator Matt Pearson.

"It is very possible that many years ago people did not know who to complain to," he said. "Today, more people know. Barbara and her group have … done a good job of educating the public. The (Purdue) Extension educators have also played a very important role in that."

In addition, Pearson's office, the Farm Bureau and other agriculture organizations have conducted extensive outreach to educate farmers/haulers/applicators and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) on licensing, certification and the the law.

"It is really amazing to consider the scope of our rule," Pearson said. "Anyone that applies more than 10 cubic yards to produce an agricultural crop in a year is included in our fertilizer rule. One horse creates more than that without any straw or bedding."

On Nov. 11, James Messersmith of Lynn complained to OISC about hog manure applications and poultry manure piles in Randolph County. An OISC investigation found the manure piles had come from an Ohio poultry farm but were not in violation. The investigation also found no violations related to manure applied to farm fields by hog farmer Mark Hunt of Lynn.

OISC Investigator Robert Brewer quoted Messersmith as saying "there is manure all over Randolph County, and I'm tired of it." Hunt told Messersmith he did not have time to listen to him when Messersmith confronted Hunt with accusations, according to Brewer. After that, Hunt's son, Trent, paid Messersmith a visit to confront him about having filed a complaint with OISC.

"Late night on Nov. 11, 2015, I received a voice message from Mr. Messersmith stating Trent Hunt had come to his residence making threats, so he contacted the sheriff's department and the state police," Brewer reported. "He further stated Trent Hunt had spun his tires as he left, which threw rocks on Mr. Messersmith's car."

Brewer quoted Trent Hunt as saying Messersmith had threatened the father and son when they built their hog farm.

Last September, Michelle Cline, who lives northeast of Portland, complained to OISC about a strong odor and an infestation of beetles coming from uncovered and un-bermed piles of manure, the closest of which was the length of 1½ football fields from her house. OISC found feathers and egg shells in the manure piles.

Cline told The Star Press the small beetles gathered on doors and windows of her house but were killed with pesticide spray before invading the interior. She said there were enough beetles her husband had to swat them away while working outdoors on the garage roof.

Darkling beetles, a native of Africa and a common poultry farm pest, will fly or crawl at night toward security lights of houses near fields on which chicken manure is applied.

Bryant Farmer Steve Fennig was fined $1,187 for failing to tarp or berm the piles of manure, which came from egg producer Berne Hi-Way Hatchery, after 72 hours. There were 19 days of violation before the manure was applied.

Brandon Rhoades of Geneva was fined $250 for hauling the manure without a license and was warned for dumping the manure too close to Cline's property line. And Eric Bryan from Adams County was fined $250 for not having the proper applicator license.

Other east-central Indiana violations in 2015 included:

• Amos King, Lynn, warned for applying liquid manure on frozen or snow-covered ground within 200 feet of a waterway.

• Gerald Yanos, Straughn, warned for applying dry cattle manure within 22 feet of a waterway. Yanos blamed a new employee.

• Allen Shockney, dba Shockney & Son pork producers, Union City, fined $250 for distributing fertilizer without a license.

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.