Sludge Watch ==> Minnesota - growing dairy alfalfa on sludged land - not a great idea

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Here is a story about growing alfalfa for dairy cows on sewage sludge spread 
mine tailings.
But this can be a problem. As we saw from the successful lawsuits brought by 
dairy farmers with dead cows in Atlanta...dairy cows fed sludge ammended 
crops can die from it.

The crops can have excessive nitrogen - especially if grown in drought 
conditions.

The sludged crops can induce copper deficiency - molybedenosis- where the 
animals suffer from metal poisoning and metal deficiencies.

Here is a research paper on the problems of feeding livestock sludge 
ammended feeds...from Kern County...where they know something about sludge 
problems.

29th California Alfalfa Symposium
MOLYBDENUM, COPPER AND SELENIUM IN ALFALFA AND OTHER FORAGES
Roland D. Meyer, Ralph L. Phillips and Daniel B. Marcum
http://esce.ucr.edu/wasteman/2000/meyer1.html


These farmers may want to contact lawyer Ed Hallman...the lawyer for the 
unhappy Atlanta Dairy farmers.  Here is a 46 page letter he wrote regarding 
misrepresentations about sludge made by the EPA and others.

http://www.loudounnats.org/pdf/Hallman_to_Subcommittee_rev.pdf



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United Taconite land grows alfalfa for Iron Range farmer
Lee Bloomquist Duluth News Tribune
Published Sunday, November 11, 2007

FORBES — Jim Takala has a growing number of hungry mouths to feed each day 
at his dairy farm.

In the past three years, Takala’s Holstein herd has grown from 80 to 220.

“Like other industries, we had to make a choice whether to grow or stay 
the same size,” said Takala of Iron. “We chose to grow.”




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A unique partnership between Takala, the Western Lake Superior Sanitary 
District, United Taconite and the University of Minnesota Extension Service 
of St. Louis County is poised to provide the expanding herd with a new, 
locally produced supplemental feed source.

Biosolids trucked from the WLSSD in Duluth are helping generate alfalfa atop 
a 500-acre tailings waste basin at United Taconite’s iron ore processing 
plant in Forbes. Biosolids are the nutrient-rich organic product of 
wastewater treatment.

Next summer, Takala plans to begin harvesting alfalfa from the 150-foot-high 
tailings basin, eventually baling 1,200 to 1,500 tons of alfalfa a year.

Tailings basins are disposal sites for barren waste rock, a byproduct of 
iron ore pellet production.

The partnership recycles the natural fertilizing agents of biosolids to grow 
a useful product on an otherwise worthless waste dump.

“The alternative would be to put it in a landfill,” said Kathleen Hamel, 
WLSSD supervisor of operations and maintenance. “But this is something we 
really want to be involved in. It’s going to be a model in the industry 
for other taconite plants. It’s just a good fit. Whatever happens here 
will influence what others do.”

Takala, one of a dwindling number of dairy farmers in the region, said 
harvesting alfalfa from atop the basin will help him cut feed costs.

“What it has the potential to do is cut the inputs of our purchase of 
grain,” said Takala. “Most [farmers] don’t have this kind of 
opportunity. The thing that makes it attractive is that it’s well-drained, 
the pH level is high enough to support alfalfa and the potassium levels are 
high, which alfalfa needs to grow. It’s a unique opportunity.”

All six Northeastern Minnesota taconite plants have tailings disposal sites 
containing millions of tons of waste rock. Tailings also have been used as 
an aggregate in road construction.

WLSSD biosolids are applied on mine land at United Taconite, Hibbing 
Taconite, Minntac Mine, Keewatin Taconite and about 10,000 acres of farm 
land approved by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to stimulate plant 
and crop growth.

Each day, the WLSSD treats 40 million gallons of wastewater. Clean water and 
biosolids are the end products of the wastewater treatment process.

Each year, about 35,000 tons of WLSSD biosolids are spread on farm fields or 
mine land in St. Louis and Carlton counties. About 15 percent of the total, 
or 5,250 tons, is used on mine land.

But the United Taconite project is the first at a taconite plant that grows 
a crop for a farmer, said Kendall Dykhuis, University of Minnesota Extension 
Service educator for St. Louis County.

Takala, whose farm is about four miles from the taconite plant, could make 
two cuttings of the alfalfa next year, in June and September, with his own 
haying equipment

“It gives the WLSSD a place to spread biosolids during spring break-up 
when there’s road restrictions and they can’t spread it in fields; 
it’s a benefit to the mines, and we are establishing a harvest crop,” 
said Dykhuis. “Basically, what you have here is space utilization. Wise 
use is up to the owner. They could use it for wildlife or to grow trees, or 
they could put wind towers up there and farm under it. What’s being done 
has never been done up here.”

In addition to alfalfa production, United Taconite is growing switchgrass 
atop the basin that would be test-fired this spring for use in municipal 
biomass boilers in Hibbing and Virginia. A 60-acre wetland also is under 
development.

“Our focus has shifted from basic reclamation to the productive use of the 
basin,” said Jason Aagenes, United Taconite environmental affairs section 
manager. “It’s actually being managed as a crop area.”

A decade ago, about

36 dairy farms operated in St. Louis County, said Dykhuis. Today, about 10 
dairy farms remain.

“The biggest problem has been when people retire, there’s no one to take 
over,” said Dykhuis.

Expanding his herd and gaining access to more feed has brought Takala’s 
son, John, a University of Minnesota animal science graduate, back to the 
family farm to help operate it, Takala said.

“Doing this means that maybe another generation will continue farming,” 
he said.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=54069&section=homepage&freebie_check&CFID=66070318&CFTOKEN=69743852&jsessionid=88307e4a5a476361783b