Posted: 12.30.2010

Gordon Stevenson, who leads the Department of Natural Resources runoff management section, might have been looking forward to a quiet week to end the calendar year - and his 26 year career.  Mother Nature's got different ideas.

With warm, wet weather rushing into Wisconsin - Stevenson is doing what he's been doing for years - reminding farmers to be vigilent on their manure management. 

In an interview with Pam Jahnke, Stevenson called the weather situation a "perfect storm" - coupling fairly deep ground frost with deep snow on top and warm temperatures.  "That snows going to melt and we'll be getting more rain - add in manure and it has nowhere to go but sideways," Stevenson says.

Stevenson says he's worried if Wisconsin livestock producers - especially dairies - don't take aggressive measures, the state will see fish kills and even some potentially bad pathogens that could make their way to peoples drinking water.  "It's surprising how far that manure will travel if you've got any slope at all to a field," Stevenson stresses, "If you've got any slope - and you come with manure - and then it rains, that manure can come off and then we've got dead fish.  I've seen this multiple times in my career and the saddest people about this are the farmers themselves.  'If I had just not tried to put that much on - if I had just not had to clean out that manure pack that day' - I've seen a lot of self-kicking after the fact."

Stevenson hopes that farmers will look at the big picture when it comes to managing their manure.  "What's the weather going to do to me if I do this?  Do I really know which fields are at risk?  Looking at the whole picture is key,"  Stevenson says its only a few events that occur through a year that cause 90 percent of the damage that might happen.  "So if you screw up at the wrong time it can just be devastating - and it can happen in just a matter of hours,"

Stevenson says his 26 year career has been a lot of things, "but never boring".  Right now there's no one next in line to fill Stevenson's shoes at the DNR.  As he exits, Stevenson told the Wisconsin Farm Report that there's been a quite a few things that have changed in his job.

"When I started there was just not a realization that farming could cause water quality problems,"  Stevenson shares.  "I used to have older farmers tell me that 'didn't the fish actually like a little manure in the water - a little nutrient' - and obviously I had to to tell them no."  He's seen tremendous improvement in how Wisconsin agriculture has stepped up on water quality issues.  "They have very articulate people that can work with me today.  The other thing that's changed," Stevenson remembers, "Is that when I started the average dairy farm was maybe 50-60 cows.  Today we've got an 11,000 cow operation - and I wouldn't be surprised to see more like that."

Can we continue that growth and still maintain our water quality?  Will the two be able to co-exist?  Stevenson wastes no time, "We have to."

• If a spill or runoff occurs, farmers are required to immediately call the DNR Spills Hotline at 1-800-943-0003 and take steps to contain the manure and minimize the damage.

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