allgie

[troy1976]

Snook,
I am too young to remember the 70s but I do remember the 80s and I agree that the water is worse today than it was then. Trust me the ag industry is very aware of the spotlight being shone upon them in regard to water quality. Most of my customers want to be and are good stewards of their land and practices. It is hard to pass farms on to new generations without being good stewards.
Here is a little food for thought as I end this post. I farm 100 acres and apply 200#/acre of nitrogen/phosphourous which equals 1 ton on 100 acres. My water has to go through the ground to the ditch to the stream to the maumee river to lake erie. Sediment falls to the bottom the entire way which is about 50 miles from the lake. Now lets say I own a house in a subdivision. I apply 2 50# bags of fertilizer to my 1/12th of an acre grass yard, 1 bag of nitrogen and 1 bag of phosphourus, throughout the entire year. That is 100# on 1/12th of an acre. 100 times 12 equals 1200 lbs/ac equivalent whish is 2/3rds of a ton. Now the water in my subdivision hits the stormsewer system, the system is overwhelmed, and I live 20 miles from the lake. Now times this by the number of homes in close proximity to each other in an urban setting. THe numbers are astronomical. As I have said before I am not defending agriculture, but we are not as large a contributor to this issue as we get credit for. Everyone has a share in the problem, but somtimes you need to put things in perspective. Good luck in 2012 fishing!!

[Snook]

Troy--Did you mean 10 tons for 100 acres--You said you use 200 lbs per acre, which means 2000 lbs or a ton for 10 acres?? I know farmers get more "****" than they deserve. I am involved in a golf course in Fla and we work so hard to be environmental friendly and really are better than housing development and great for wildlife--better even than pure native matelucal trees everywhere. Interesting, give me more info re fertilizer uses!!!!--I am looking at fertilizer companies and trying to ascertain wqith low cost of Natural Gas why they are charging so much for Nitrogen, they are making 65% margins when historically they were 20%. Price of corn is so high they just feel we will pay it I guess is the answer. And I did catch a 13 inch perch 2 weeks ago in the slim, so just maybe the stuff is not on the bottom?? PS Maybe I will give you my e-mail off line.