Upstate legislators and agricultural advocates are decrying a proposal in the New York State Legislature that would limit the size of dairy herds to 700 cows.
The proposal would prohibit the Department of Environmental Conservation from “issuing or authorizing any permits” to farms with 700 or more dairy cows.
The bill states that farms of that size amount to factory farms that “have numerous detrimental impacts to the environment, resulting in billions of pounds of manure each year, creating runoff that pollutes local waterways....” The bill also states that the larger dairy farms “also release significant amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas, and harm the surrounding air quality...”
But farmers like Shane St. Cyr, says the bill’s sponsors would benefit from visiting operations like his. He’s a partner at Adirondack Farms, the largest dairy operation in Clinton County. It’s home to nearly 3,000 cows.
“I would love to invite them up here and have a conversation and show them around and learn more about their motivation and show them how we operate.” St. Cyr adds, “And over 95 percent of all farms, including dairy farms, in New York are family owned and operated. And also many of the milk coops. So the family farms are also the owners of those coops. So we all work together very hard to provide nutritious food for New York and limiting our ability to do that could have a significantly negative impact on food being produced in New York for New Yorkers.”
The bill’s lead sponsor Linda Rosenthal, a Democrat from Manhattan’s 67th Assembly District, did not respond to an interview request by press time.
WAMC spent a recent afternoon at Adirondack Farms in Peru, New York.
“Hop in here and we can drive down to the third barn.” St. Cyr stops beside the cows. “This is a free stall system. They can lie down when they feel like it. They can get up and eat. They’ve got free choice water. As you can see they’ve got fans blowing on them to keep them cool.”
“Do they go out in the field at all?,” Bradley asks.
“So as part of that new York state permit we’re not allowed to put cows out because we have to account for every drop of manure. So we’re not permitted for that,” St. Cyr explains.
The cows are quietly eating as St. Cyr stops at the barn. Across from the barn, he points to what looks like a gigantic yurt.
"This is the methane digester. So all the manure comes out of the barn in an underground pipe and goes into the digester here,” St. Cyr says.
“How big is that?” Bradley asks.
“That’s two million gallons.”
“How much do you put out a day?”
“A hundred thousand gallons a day,” calculates St. Cyr. “You know, this legislation, in order to have a digester financially feasible you need about this many cows. So that legislation would remove the ability for farms to have digesters creating renewable natural gas.”
St. Cyr has the support of New York Republicans, including Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. The Republican from the 21st District, who is considering a bid for governor, excoriated the bill at a press event Monday.
“New York’s dairy industry generates billions of dollars annually and supports thousands of jobs in our state, tens of thousands of jobs,” Stefanik emphasized. “The Democrat legislation would crush our farms.”
Meanwhile, state Republican officials blasted the bill at a press conference last week. State Assemblyman Chris Tague, a Republican from the 102nd district, is a former dairy farmer who had planned to run for Stefanik’s seat if she had been confirmed as UN Ambassador. Tague said the bill is an attack on the state’s family farms.
“It’s written by people who have never milked a cow, never walked a pasture. Capping a farm at 700 cows is not just arbitrary, it’s ignorant. It punishes family farms who are trying to survive. And many already surpass this random made-up number while successfully meeting the state’s regulations of herd, land and product management,” Tague said.
With nearly 3,000 dairy farms in the state, the dairy industry is the largest single segment of New York's agricultural industry, according to the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets.
The bill to limit the number of cows on farms is currently in the Environmental Conservation committees in the Assembly and Senate.
