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Dairy cooperative offers permitting assistance through new tool

Dairy farmers that need assistance with new or renewed CAFO permits have a new tool available.

Tim Trotter with Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative tells Brownfield their Maestro program will assist farmers through the many steps and processes of obtaining and maintaining a permit, and help farmers capture their on-farm data. “For the last few years, we’ve been visiting with our members talking about the next wave of farmers wanting to be in the business and transitioning farms, and something that comes around many times is the permitting challenges that they all have.”

Trotter says states require concentrated animal feeding operation permits if a farm has a certain number of animals, and many farms operate just below the limit and need help to expand.  He says that’s where new consultant-based fee-for-service Maestro can help. “It’s one thing to get permitted, but then you’ve got all of the requirements to meet within your permit that are very regimented, that are very much regulated. You need to do things on a timely basis and you need to record all of this information, so we’re also going to have technology to help with that endeaver.”

Trotter says Edge’s Director of Regulatory and Permitting, Tim Baumgartner works with other experts to help farmers with the permitting process, and they helped develop Maestro. “In the first version, Tim will be using the ‘back office’ if you will, just to make sure all of dates and requirements are in for the individual farm, but in the future, this will be a portal-driven tool that farms can use.”

Trotter says the first version of Maestro will help with permitting in Wisconsin but will be developed to assist members in other states. 

Trotter says many of the family farms want to expand to bring family members back to the farm, and the Maestro service can make it easier for families to do that.

AUDIO: Tim Trotter discusses the Maestro program with Brownfield’s Larry Lee