A farm family that endures the smell of hog manure almost daily wants its property assessment lowered and its taxes slashed.
Darrel Carlisle farms 3,000 acres with his father and brother about 20 kilometres south of Brandon.
Carlisle said the stench from a network of intensive hog operations will make it harder to sell their land.
He believes the taxes they pay on their land and buildings should reflect a loss in property value that he pegs at about $500,000.
“We’ re stuck with the barns. We have no choice. We smell the damn things every day.”
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The Carlisles and another farmer, Gary Strath, have appealed to the provincial Board of Revision for an adjustment to their property taxes. It may take months before the board gives its decision.
The case could set a precedent that other people in similar dilemmas could follow, Carlisle said.
“If this went in our favor, a month down the road it would be unreal how many other cases would come up.”
The Carlisles have had their farm for sale for a year. They plan to leave Manitoba once the farm sells.
“We’ re moving to wherever the hell they don’ t have hog barns.”
Manitoba Pork Council chair Marcel Hacault doubts that intensive hog operations drive down land values. He suggests the opposite is more likely.
Farms with access to manure have an opportunity to cut their fertilizer bills by roughly $30 an acre, Hacault said.
Grain producers can save on freight costs if they sell to nearby hog operations that mill their own feed.
Those kinds of advantages should make land near hog operations more appealing to prospective buyers, not less, Hacault said. He argues it is more likely that land values would decline in rural municipalities that don’ t allow intensive livestock operations.
“I feel for these people,” said Hacault when asked about the Carlisles and Strath.
“They’ re feeling the crunch of grains and oilseed farmers. They’ re trying to find a way out of it and they opted for this.”
Hog Watch Manitoba, an organization critical of intensive hog operations, is watching with interest.
Hog Watch vice-chair Vicki Burns hopes the case becomes a touchstone for other people in situations similar to the Carlisles and Strath.
“They are the first people to bring the issue forward. Depending on how this goes, we could see a lot more.”
Burns said Hog Watch gets numerous calls from people in rural areas concerned about large hog operations. Odor from lagoons and barns is the number one concern.
“It’ s hard for me to imagine living with that problem day in and day out.”
The Carlisles farm in the Rural Municipality of Oakland, but the hog barns are in the adjacent RM of Glenwood. Last year they were among 48 families who signed a petition opposing the addition of three more barns. The barns were built anyway.
“Our municipality basically had no say and we’ re stuck with the smell,” Carlisle said.
Wayne Motheral, president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, said municipalities need to have land use plans and zoning bylaws to lower the risk of clashes between people who want to build hog barns and those who oppose them.
Such plans and bylaws designate what kinds of developments are allowed and in what areas of a municipality they can be built.
Motheral also supports planning districts, which bring neighboring municipalities together to discuss developments proposed for one municipality that could affect others.
