Des Moines Register
10-06-06
Letters to the editor
REGISTER READERS
Manure ban not based on science or common sense
Directors and members of the Iowa Soybean Association oppose the ban on
manure applications on soybeans that has been proposed by the Iowa
Environmental Protection Commission.
Our opposition is much deeper than whether or not a practice is "convenient," as
you concluded in the Sept. 25 editorial ("Apply Common Sense: Ban Manure on
Soybeans").
Such decisions should be based on science, not on suppositions or whims that
masquerade as "common sense." Common sense would tell us that tons of metal
cannot fly, but if we apply science to that metal, we all know it can be made to do
so.
Banning the use of manure on soybean ground is unnecessary because science
tells us a ban can't help the environment if the manure is used properly.
Furthermore, there are times when using manure on soybeans makes sense,
economically and environmentally.
The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service tells us that injecting liquid
manure on cornstalk fields that will be planted to soybeans is a more acceptable
practice than injecting it on soybean stubble fields that will be planted to corn, if
the land is classified as highly erodible.
Even so, because the nitrogen in manure has a higher economic value in corn
production, farmers don't commonly apply manure to soybeans. With this in
mind, the proposed ban can have no more than a token impact.
The truth is, members of the EPC ignored the cautions of the scientists at Iowa
State University, who told them there is not adequate data on which to base the
proposed ban.
If EPC's goal is to improve water quality, it should focus on improving the
accuracy of manure-use recommendations, as ISU agronomists recommend.
This isn't about inconvenience for farmers. It's about basing critical, precedentsetting decisions on all the facts rather than on the one fact that happens to
support your side of the question.
- Ray Gaesser, president, Iowa Soybean Association, Corning.