Cows coming to St. Joseph County

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A long-fought battle over a proposed dairy farm appears to be over.

The proposed farm has been a huge issue in Leonidas Township and has been for close to a year.

Bustorf Dairy wanted to build a CAFO, or 'confined animal feeding operation, there and wanted a permit for a farm of more than 3,000 cows. The state denied that permit because of water-quality issues.

The farm returned with a scaled-back proposal, now with just about 2,200 cows, and that permit was approved.

It now appears that all systems are go for the massive CAFO at the intersection of Longnecker and Fulton Roads.

"We probably start with less cows," said Juergen Bustorf, of Bustorf Diary.

Bustorf will bring the farming he learned in Germany to St. Joseph County.

"I think this is the future for farming," said Bustorf.

With Longnecker Road preparing to welcome about 2,200 cows, some neighbors are not pleased.

"Obviously there's going to be a lot more traffic, and a lot more noise and a lot more commotion and smell," said neighbor Tammie McCoy.

The State Department of Environmental Quality approved the permit for the Bustorf Diary on Tuesday, but the township supervisor wonders if the DEQ can properly regulate such a farm.

"There's been a lot of problems with them over the years, still is," said Bernard Saxman Leonidas Township Supervisor.

Tammie McCoy wonders if she'll be able to sell her home now that the diary farm is moving in, one of her neighbors is already trying to do exactly that.

"Very nice people," said McCoy of the Bustorfs, "but I just don't want what they're bringing in."

Bustorf says that the fears of the neighbors are not what his farm will be about.

"We want to do the best for the neighbors," said Bustorf. "I am living here with my children, my children will go in the barn and we are looking forward to this, we did it in Germany too."

Bustorf believes that if he and his family can stomach the cows up-close, the community can as well.

"You won't smell this farm, you won't see it farming, you won't hear it so much," said Bustorf.

The state says the new diary will create 26 on-farm jobs and as many as 115 indirect jobs.

The state also says that people living in St. Joseph County have 60 days to appeal that permit approval, an administrative law judge would then decide whether the CAFO would actually be built.