Some common sense, please

[cakadu]

As I stepped out my door this morning (Sunday on the holiday weekend) at about 8:00 a.m., a truck loaded with pig manure goes rumbling by. Now as a producer, without question, I can fully understand needing to spread manure when the time is right to do so. What I do question is the timing of it and the fact that there aren't courtesy calls to neighbors to let them know that it is going to be taking place.

We sometimes are our own worst enemies. Like many of you, we have new acreage owners around here who will likely not be too impressed by this. I believe that when people come to live in the country they need to adapt to the things that happen in the country - "urban living" is not possible in rural areas.

In connecting the dots, the people who are spending big money on their acreages are likely not at all interested in what needs to take place in a farming operation. They do pay a lot more in taxes than a producer with farm land does. Acreage owners today are far more likely to take action on these types of events and put pressure on councillors etc. The long and the short of it is that we don't do ourselves any favors in ignoring our acreage neighbors.

I agree that sometimes you have to do what you have to do - just use some common sense.

[coppertop]

Linda, the AOPA legislation enshrines the Right to Farm, which includes the spreading of manure as long as that activity is within the confines of the legislation.

Some NRCB approvals have a condition regarding manure spreading on holidays, weekends etc. Some go so far as to require that neighbours who are considered Directly Affected Parties to the operation are notified 25 hours prior to spreading taking place.

The most recent amendments to the legislation give even more 'rights' to the operator. Sufficient manure spreading lands for three years must be listed in the original approval, but after that operators are not required to advise the NRCB of changes to manure spreading lands. They must soil test and provide the NRCB with a manure management plan, this to ensure they are not overloading with nitrogen.

As far as neighbours go, there are some excellent operators who work with their neighbours to ensure they aren't having a negative affect on the community, and there are others who feel it is their God given right to do whatever they please. Something like my manure hauling neighbour, as soon as my dust control is laid down annually he decides to change haul routes and make sure he makes as many ruts in the road when it is wet as he possibly can.

[coppertop]

Sorry, that shoud read 24 hours notice.

[cakadu]

Copper, I understand what you are saying. To some extent it is a pain to notify neighbors etc., but it is a lot easier to deal with them up front than to have them angry and fighting any expansions, additions, etc.

With more and more acreages being created, producers may find themselves outnumbered so to speak. We can learn to work better with our neighbors or we can risk having them block applications for various things.

Tell me, copper, do your manure happy neighbors also get all up in arms when they hear about people opposing CFO's?

[coppertop]

Actually, the only way that CFO's can be successfully opposed by the community is if there is conclusive evidence of negative impact on the environment, health,economy etc. I am not saying I agree with the current legislation as amended, but the community certainly does not have the clout now that they did when municipalities were approving CFO's. The manure hauling neighbour hauls manure from CFO's or large farming operations when he can get it for nothing and composts it on his own site. I notice that he has certainly cut back the operation over the past couple of years, don't know why.

[Burbert]

Where I live now, most neighbours, farmers, whomever, hate one another all the time anyway. The old days are gone, grab and run, whats in it for me, me, me, after all I've got Sat TV and don't need friends. Heck nobody even waves or slows down on rural roads either!

[coppertop]

Some of that mindset exists in my community as well, but for the most part neighbours still help one another, are friendly and try to work together to solve any problems that do arise with fences, land uses etc. I do agree that society is rapidly developing a 'me-first' mentality and it certainly isn't making things better. The current boom in Alberta is bringing out the worst in people in many cases, from poor service in businesses, to gouging by contractors etc.

[cakadu]

We deal with a lot of that mindset around here. Many of the acreages down our 2 mile stretch of road have changed hands at least once if not more. I would say that the majority of the new acreage owners come from an urban setting and they don't get what rural life is about. We have one set of neighbors across the road from us that own 4 acres and figure that they can do whatever they want, when they want and their little darlings run amok.

There have been so many subdivisions that it is hard to keep up with them. It's funny how the seasonal creek is described as a "drainage ditch" in order to get the subdivision approved. Strange phenomenon when the county itself has stated that they want to see ag land remain intact.

This whole me first attitude is disturbing at best. It makes me wonder how things will be in a few years when these same people are the ones supposedly looking after us.

[coppertop]

subdivisions are rampant in this area. In my submission to our county regarding the proposed amendments to the Land Use By-Law, I have suggested that the set a predetermined number of parcels per quarter if that is what they are hearing the majority of citizens ask for, but that any fragmented parcels are included in that number and not in addition as is the case currently. Creation of separate title for fragments is not orderly planning, they crop up all over the place with no consistency and in many cases in this area, existing ones have been allowed to use lease roads as legal access. When the resource company decide to abandon a well and lease road, guess where these landowner go demanding an access road ??

With respect to attitude, I am finding that there is an attitude amongst many people rural and urban these days. Just this morning a fellow in a big fancy pickup cut me off at the Post Office, drove out of the parking lot when he didn't have the rightof way, and really didn't seem to give a damn !I had to hit the brakes and the lady behind me had to do the same, in order not to hit the idiot. Unfortunately that attitude is showing up everywhere, people have big bucks and think they are above all rules and regulations. Case in point the mess the off roaders and ATV's made over the weekend.

I still think that respect for others property, and being a good neighbor is the most important criteria to ensure a feeling of community, and hopefully that sense of community will prevail in spite of a few knuckleheads that don't have the sense God gave a goose.

[wmoebis]

When the "right to farm" was enshrined there was a farmer on evey quarter with pigs, chickens, cows, feeders, milk cows. You didn't smell anything you didn't even hardly smell your own at your house. The bellowing of a critter was pleasent. Not the noise of a hudge feedlot.The smell of the hog barn was restricked to the barn yard. Times have changed so have our laws. There is rarely a quite, peacful area where acreage owners could live to enjoy the peaceful country life they dream of.

I remember when my father used to move large machinery from one field to the next. He would make arangements to drive it on the neighbours land or we had a vehicle in front and behind stopping every on comer. After all this was an 18 ft cultivator or a 22ft harrow packer bar. Now tractors alone are that wide and farmers don't even have a pilot car, they move at night with 30 ft sraight cut headers. Seems like they could care less about anyone else or thier safety. I am guilty, at times too.

Some common sense,please (fellow farmers)

[coppertop]

Those who choose the acreage life in a predominantly agricultural area, need to be fully aware that it is likely they will experience odors associated with a livetock operation, noise associated with conventional field work, and dust associated with moving equipment, hauling silage, grain etc. Anyone who doesn't wish to have their peace and quiet disrupted by these things should either live in an urban centre or a country residential area away from agricultural pursuits.
Most complaints about the agriculture industry come from neighbours who don't have an understanding of what to expect in rural Alberta.

Around here it's cows bawling, donkeys braying, dogs barking etc., but I enjoy those sounds a lot more than I do the damn quads roaring up and down the road in the middle of the night !!!