Northwest Iowa — Two agricultural operations in our area have had to pay penalties to the DNR recently for violations of environmental laws and rules.
In Lyon County, a feedlot was fined for violations of record-keeping in regard to what is known as a “Nutrient Management Plan.” A Nutrient Management Plan is something that livestock producers need to file, which is to document practices and strategies adopted by livestock operations to address natural resource concerns related to soil erosion, livestock manure, and disposal of organic by-products. In this case, Scott Kock and the Scott and Pam Kock Revocable Trust were accused of not filing timely reports when the facility had expanded from 800 to 1200 head and not updating their manure management plan when they stopped using two fields and started applying manure to another field instead.
The Kocks were ordered to maintain and update Nutrient Management Plans, maintain records, and pay a $3,000 penalty.
In Osceola County, Sunrise Farms Rentals, LLC is accused of building two confinements holding 264,000 pullets each, one in 1995 and the other in 1998, and never filing a manure management plan until 2018. The confinements were located by a DNR official going through aerial photographs and matching them to facilities that were known to have submitted manure management plans. The DNR says Sunrise Farms will have to pay a $10,000 penalty and $3,168 in compliance fees for failing to submit Manure Management Plans.
