290017_Acknowledgement Letter_20190210

M - X, - , .bear Is ng i,
N
Felbi 1% 2019
Ms, Knight back ,
'K id Aug.. bef6mthe -I hurricane-
b k In m
9:1
J rian $outher Grassy Kn Farms),about-
contacted B S
pumping out our pit. At this point [ht the it was -close totbe.
start pump level. This is whenwet usually
su-,, 11y contactthem
and1u1n:de.r horl�m�'al;condi-t,'ionst,hei'r scheduling; tjme allows
us: ample time; to -
sf,`n the spring - h -
get our, P Iay, or in the
falls* age off, the ffeelds,,.s.o. at, they have, -a' place: to take
JI, th
the mianure..
fo
ra
Before the first hurricane we- were having to wait
the sorghum to get -mature, because planting was so late
due to the, spring rains and extremely
lateovernight
freezes. Then after the Ist- hurricane there were very few
days dry enoughto get in -the, fields to - --even get the silage,
out of the way.. This is';detailed [,in the attached rainfall
sheet., Actually wewere oe o: evenly able ti-`- ev
er get:about half
of our silage. cut and putup tilt we: ran out offany dry
ground. The rest is still in the field's today.
The pit,rea-ch-,,ed the, full or start , pump level on Se,
'�t till M�`d 2 -st 't- h .r e. From this Pon , 1 1 I followine the 1. ..;,j, rican

I . an. .20,19 not only wasSoothers way behind ,everywhere
;
else there- was no time that they could have gone across
my fields, (as mentioned; earlier about my silage) if they
nd
had been here waiting. Following the. 2 hwridcane, and
nifall Ilthe, - it. eventually
the continued histori.c�-a,fly-hj'ghra�ipit
became, full and started, overflowing in early Dec..
Sometime in Nov, we began to see that there
seemed to be no end in ,sight' to the, ralin, and that the pit
wasgoing to run over. So we, started scooping out the
barn waste as much as we could. We ma -do, an
emergency stockpile that cou"Id be -spread with asolids
manure spreader later when, things dried up.
I got a hold of Brian, Southers again around the, first
week of Jan. so I could get an estimate on his time frame
to put on Rebecca's POA. At this time he, said he was In
Sk_ (t I he only ;place dry enough- to still work) and that
with continued good weather he should be able to get to,
us in about 3 weeks.
On Jan. 29th -Brian was able topumpabout ut Y2 of a day
before it started raining again. He was able to get 3.3
loads (207,900 gal) spreadi, Even without. the -rain that

evening that had covered all the. dry ground we;had .at
that time.
not get us past This did' the start, pump, level but with
us only milking 35 head, now anddry enough weather to
put them out, pasturemost of the. day now the, 2 plus
feet of freeboard room shou.Id be more. than enough to
,ho'ld us till we cut earlyspring hay.
We, have tried numerous times- In the past and
currently to find a backup plan-for-Sibuthets (Grassy Knob
0
Farms') but have been unable to find another commercial
spreader. We have tried other farmers, who have their
own spreadving.and ''purniping equipment buttheare--
either too busy : with their, own farms or are Just reluctant
to use their equipment on, another farm fearing albreak'
down somewhere else when they need it at home. tn'the
case, of this winter it would not have done any good
anyway because nobody could have -gone, across, the
fields.
I cy that WSRO also takein, to I am asking consideration
i
that although we have done everything: we could think of
to prevent and lesson the overflow problem further
giving us a financial civil penalty, given the current overail

dairy industry situation, would only: make continuing to
control the level of the pit harder if not impossible. Aside
from the overall, industry situation the 2 nd hurricane .left
us without power for over a weeki. In which time we
could only milk the tows with- a small' ,generator '-and
portable zmilk pump, so we hadto just pour out the, milk
since we could not cool it. This was -also unrecoverable:
rs income due to, the weather. We are also personally in the
middle ofsettling ,our parents estate which includes a.10t
of debt that they personally stood, good for, for the � dairy
X
operation (loans and supply bills,).
1 understand. that I should have called Rebecca rn-uch
sooner and since this has :h -
appened, she and your office
have been -very understanding about theunusual
situation. The reason l did not make that call. earlier was
out of an. industrywide fear (I have spoken, with -several
others who: have similar fears) that with the extended'
forecast, at the time, of so m-u:ch rain - your office, would
have put us on an unachievable dead, line to get it
pumped down,. 1 keep thinking that since we were on the
list since late Aug. with Souther's,he, would have gotten

it cle8hed out before it; overflowed without being on
such an. unachievable time fra -me.
Our plan going forward is to as stated earlier to have
the cows out on pasture asmuch as we can,,and tobe-
sure weare :not near the full, or start pump level again
going into 'hurricane season.
As I have stated I hope you will. take 'into
consideration all of these events when considering
enforcement of a civil penalty. Again I apologies for not.
contacting Rebecca earlier and understand morenow
that I should have.,
Respectfully,
FisherWard Dairy