Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley — The Iron County Comprehensive Planning/Land and Zoning Committee is recommending the county board extend the moratorium on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in Iron County for another year after the committee decided more study was needed.
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, sometimes referred to as Confined Animal Feeding Operations, are farms with over 1,000 animal units, according to County Zoning Administrator Thomas Bergman. The type of animal being farmed determines the exact ratio of animals to animal units, Bergman explained.
The original ban was passed last March in response to controversy surrounding the establishment of a CAFO in Bayfield County.
At the time, Dave Kretzschmar — of Kretzschmar Holsteins Farm — told the committee that he had begun becoming a CAFO and therefore was grandfathered into the county’s ban and there wasn’t enough land in the county for another CAFO.
“There’s not going to be a another CAFO in Iron County ... it’s impossible,” Kretzschmar told the committee during a public hearing last March. “(There isn’t) enough land. You’ve got the biggest barrier in Iron County there is. It’s called woods. There is too much forest.”
Later in the hearing, Kretzschmar said that approximately 1 to 1.5 acres of tillable land is needed per cow, meaning that at least 1,050 tillable acres would be needed for the 700 cows needed to roughly qualify as a CAFO.
Tuesday, Bergman recommended the extension of the ban so the county could conduct a spatial analysis of the county.
Bergman said while it was possible there currently wasn’t enough existing farmland in the county for a second CAFO, there were forested parts of the county that were zoned agricultural and could potentially be cleared of timber.
He also said there hasn’t been any interest in establishing a second CAFO, so he didn’t think extending the moratorium would be hurting anyone.
Several committee members echoed Bergman’s concern.
“If you look in Iron County right now — there’s some areas that it’s forest land and has been for 100 years, but it is still zoned (as agriculture),” said Brad Matson.
If it was possible to clear enough land to open a CAFO, Bergman said an ordinance would have to be drafted, whereas it wouldn’t matter if a second CAFO was impossible.
“I’d like to do the spatial analysis, just to find out if it’s even worth us writing an ordinance,” Bergman said. “There’s no point in writing an ordinance for something that is never ever going to happen here.”