March 11, 2010

Part-time farmers are in crosshairs of proposed bay regulations

AMELIA—Last fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a new initiative to get tough on cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, including proposed regulations on water quality that would reach all the way down to the small, part-time farmer.

Several bills in Congress would give that initiative the power of law. But some Virginia farmers believe the initiatives not only are impractical and expensive but also have the potential to force part-time cattle producers out of business.

“What they’re looking at is somebody else making the decision for them whether they farm or not, because the expense of complying with these regulations could be much higher than any cash income they’d get from their livestock,” said David Coleman, an Amelia County cattleman.

Cattle and calves represent the second-largest commodity in Virginia agriculture, generating almost $400 million in cash receipts in 2008. Most of those animals graze on small farms in Central, Northern and Southwest Virginia and are raised by part-time farmers who also work off the farm. That’s where proposed new regulations could really have an impact.

“One of the biggest expenses would be putting in a well, and then running your piping and putting in water troughs throughout your different pastures,” Coleman said. “Especially with a well, you’ve got to have electricity, and these pastures are out in the middle of nowhere. It could be very expensive—so expensive that many of those part-time farmers might decide to just get out of the cattle business.”

According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, there were about 28,000 part-time farmers in the Old Dominion. Many raise cattle while holding down an off-farm job, as Coleman does. Many part-time cattlemen already use best management practices needed to protect water quality, fencing animals out of waterways and having soil tested before applying fertilizer. But the EPA’s computer model for nutrient sources doesn’t take any of those previous efforts into account, because smaller-scale farmers haven’t used federal cost-share dollars to pay for them.

If thousands of Virginia cattlemen leave the business, Coleman said, no one knows what will happen to their land. He’s afraid much of it could end up in development, which wouldn’t help the bay clean-up effort. And Virginia’s agriculture industry could shrink dramatically.

Contact Wilmer Stoneman, VFBF associate director of governmental relations, at 804-290-1024 or Norm Hyde, VFBF senior video producer, at 804-290-1146.