SASKATOON – Saskatchewan’s feedlot sector has expanded slowly, steadily and quietly over the past decade, but that changed with the recent proposal to build a lot near Outlook with eventual capacity for 36,000 head.
John McKinnon, beef industry research chair at the University of Saskatchewan, said the sector isn’t flying under the radar anymore.
Organizations opposed to feedlot developments are becoming more vocal, he told the Beef and Forage Symposium in Saskatoon Jan. 19. An organized campaign is developing.
Water quality is the biggest concern, including microbial pathogens, chemical residue, antibiotic residue in manure, the potential for antibiotic resistance and nutrient runoff.
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“Nobody’s denying there’s issues here,” McKinnon said.
“But what we have to do as industry here is make sure that we’re part of the solution and that we’re not part of the problem.”
Cattle produce a lot of manure, but estimates vary.
Saskatchewan Agriculture uses 57 pounds per day of manure and urine on a wet basis, while the American Society of Agriculture Engineers estimates it at 65 lb.
McKinnon said recent trials on 1,200 to 1,300 lb. heifers at the U of S measured 35 to 50 lb. of urine and manure.
“It is a fact that manure can contain some nasty things,” he said.
High profile cases don’t help the livestock industry’s cause.
Seven people died in Walkerton, Ont., as a result of E. coli 0157: H7, while 7,000 were affected by cryptosporidium in drinking water in North Battleford, Sask.
Cattle were the source of infection in Walkerton, but the problem was incompetence at the community’s water treatment plant. The cattle producer was found to be following required practices.
Human sewage caused the infection in North Battleford.
Hormones can also be excreted in manure.
The Fathead Minnow study in Nebraska found that a feedlot was draining directly into a river.
The female minnows were taking on masculine reproductive traits and vice versa.
“What (the study) didn’t point out, however, is that feedlot effluent in a particularly well-run, well-regulated environment does not go directly into watersheds,” McKinnon said.
As well, a Canadian study has found that microorganisms rapidly degrade estrogen and testosterone in the soil.
However, people are concerned about what happens in their environment and food.
“What is going to be our argument to these groups that we are part of the solution?” McKinnon said.
His answer is regulatory oversight by governments.
Producers often chafe at the thought of government intervention, but he said this is truly a role for government and a safeguard that producers should welcome.
In Saskatchewan, organizers of proposed feedlots must go through regulatory procedures in the agriculture and environment ministries and the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority.
The province’s main focus, under the Agricultural Operations Act, is protecting ground and surface water.
Professional engineering firms must investigate proposed sites and classify them as geologically secure, variable or sensitive with respect to water.
“Depending on the classification, there’s more hoops that you have to jump through in terms of the engineering principles that have to go into the design of the facility,” McKinnon said.
He said feedlot operators must protect against contamination by building holding ponds and containment facilities.
