Residental farming or not?

[Aethian]

Mattawan family's rural hobby farm under fire, raising questions about Right to Farm Act: http://bit.ly/13xQqna


I'm a bit lost on this one. From what I understand the farm had been given the okay and now they are being told they have 90 days to pack it up.

From what they listed 5 acres seems tight but it seems doable if they have the right set up. So I just don't know.

[s_stabeler]

this is morally wrong, even if legally it's uncertain. They have been around for 3 years now, consulting the township ever step of the way, pouring money into fixing the property up, and getting the farm built. Now, just as they are going to be able to get some money in ( the turkeys are getting large enough to sell for slaughter and the hens are getting large enough to start laying) they are told that they have 90 days to pack it in. ( worse: one "solution" would have reclassified the animals as pets, causing financial issues as you can't sell a pet for slaughter, or, if you have a pet hen, sell the eggs.)

[AccountingDrone]

Major suckitude.

Although I will point out that the harvesting age for turkeys is roughly 9 months, and chickens will start laying if the lighting conditions are good for it at 26 weeks, abut the same age you can also chop off their little heads to cook them. The lighting needs to be in excess of 10 hours a day for best laying [which is why the commercial batteries leave the lights on 24 hours]

And it is possible to farm commercially on 5 acres - nothing says you have to actually be able to fully graze an animal if you can show the feed bills for hay and grain - and you dispose of the dung appropriately.

I think they should take it up with their state representative and congresscritter - they should be allowed to farm commercially even with that little land. I suppose they could get rid of the equines and go with poultry and bees only.

[HYHYBT]

That would make sense; you don't eat horses and donkeys, and they don't lay eggs, so from a practical standpoint they would be the thing to get rid of if it comes to that. HOpefully it won't.

[Aethian]

What's bad is that in that county and a few more, home/hobby/rural farms are coming into question. One of my friends got the okay on her farm, had it all checked out, and now they get fined every week for what they have AFTER getting the written ok.

I just wonder what has brought on this killing of home grown food.

[siead_lietrathua]

it could be based on revenue. i know around here at least you HAVE to make a minimum of several thousand dollars off your farmland to keep your "farming" status for your land, since it comes with some tax breaks and etc. i believe here it's around $8,000 or so. if they have a similar rule in their laws that could be why.
from reading the article, that sounds like the reason. Right to Farm protects commercial farmers, and probably has a dollar value minimum the family didn't meet.

shitty? yes. but not unheard of.

edit: found the FAQ on the gov't site for the act. says right on it the act doesn't mean you can farm all you want, wherever and however. it's just something to help avoid nusience lawsuits. you still have to follow the law of the land. http://www.michigan.gov/documents/md...3_422144_7.pdf


*deleted part i had here. it ended up being irrelivant as i read more*

[mikoyan29]

That's a pretty rural area of Michigan to begin with, so I don't get it.

[AccountingDrone]

Hm, if they could go totally 'organic' and unmedicated on their poultry, and get someone locally to get a prescription for unmedicated poultry and eggs, they could perhaps squeek in under ADA compliance for food sourcing.

[siead_lietrathua]

i am having a hard time finding an article that calls what they do anything other than a hobby farm. if they aren't actively selling their produce (milk, eggs, meat, etc) at the local markets or to a large company then i can see why they would be having problems. right to farm and other acts in michigan are not designed to cover personal use farms, and it doesn't mean that you can break the local zoning rules about critters per acreage.

the family talks about how they are in compliance with GAAMP. but Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management Practice doesn't cover anything other than nuisance lawsuits. if their neighbors were suing them, they'd probably be covered. but if they are against something in the zoning rules, then it doesn't matter if a neighbor's complaint is what got them investigated. the complaint would go nowhere with the town except they must have found something against the zoning rules.

don't get me wrong, i would be totally sympathetic if they had the farm a while, and people that moved into the area complained. but they moved into a town and brought a livestock farm with them, people have the right to get irritated.

and really.. chickens? even cleaned to regulation, chicken farms stink to hell, and 5 acres ain't that big.

edit: found another article (ok, it's fox but) http://fox17online.com/2013/08/01/fa...#axzz2aoUBeotZ

sounds like the guy that approved their farming stuff was wrong, and he's not there now. it's a diffrent inspector that says “There seemed to be a misunderstanding about the animals that they were keeping and the ordinance permit.”
“I think I was very clear to you that there had been some changes, on the Hunter farm, when the first initial inspection, and the second. There also was some mistakes made by the zoning administrator who is now not with the firm,” said Ruzick.


the town also released a letter.
http://tribwxmi.files.wordpress.com/...ss-release.pdf

"When the Township became aware of the apparent zoning violation related to keeping animals it was investigated. Initially, our review found a few issues, such as a need for more fencing, which the property owner soon corrected. At that time, the number of animals appeared to respect the ordinance limits, given the size of their land.
Weeks later, it was discovered that more animals were being kept than originally determined. This ultimately led to a determination that the owners were not in compliance with the zoning limits. We have had subsequent conversations with the owners and are in the process of determining the extent to which a violation may or may not exist."

[Tanasi]

I grew up on a farm, I own my own farm and I'm a partner with my family in another farm. IMO that's a lot of critters for such a small piece of land and that's assuming the whole lot can be used.
IMO instead of a planning commission setting what appears to be arbitrary critter populations maybe the state agriculture service needs to weigh in with their opinion based upon that lot's carrying capacity. Not every piece of land is equal. And further I wouldn't call it a hobby farm but just a hobby. I know a guy that's trying to farm a piece of land that you couldn't grow sage grass, rabbit baccer or cedar trees on but he's out there trying and failing. Another guy I know has some of the best farming land there it and all he does with it is mow it and has no intentions of using for anything useful.