Now, we know The Devoted Barn has claimed numerous times the condition of the property is due to lack of care by the previous owners (we'll remind you that there was no inspection done on this property prior to DFAS entering the land contract). The problem here has nothing to do with the property, but more with the way it has been managed and maintained for the past three years. One major area where this is obvious is manure management. We have heard Melissa and crew whine about how The Devoted Barn has had to spend so much money cleaning up illegally dumped manure from the previous farm owner and that the piles of manure there are not caused by them. We had some people reach out asking us to further investigate what was actually going on. We were provided photos of the past and current manure management practices at the farm. So let's get dirty. (Sorry, this is a long one)
Here is aerial photo of part of the farm in Summer 2017, 2 years prior to The Devoted Barn moving in. The cow pasture is located in the top left side of the photo. You can see that the prior farm did in fact spread their manure back in that field, which is a very common practice in farming. The issue here is that this field does happen to be surrounded by water and wetlands, so spreading there wasn't exactly the correct thing to do. However, keep in mind that the Devoted Barn did purchase the property "as is" without doing any sort of inspection. Whatever issues the farm had prior, are now their issues as the buyers. Had an inspection been performed prior to purchasing, any discovered environmental infractions would have had to be dealt with by the seller before closing.
You will also notice in the above photo that there are not manure piles located in any other location. The tent located above the top left corner of the barn is a manure tent for stockpiling in the winter when spreading was not an option. Once the tent was filled, a company was called to remove the pile. This is the best way to manage manure as it removed it completely from a property which limits the smell and most importantly limits fly production. Now we know, some people will say "well that photo is from 2 years ago, a lot can change in two years and maybe the property looked much different in 2019." Below are some links from The Devoted Barn's own Facebook page proving that the property was definitely not in the condition it's in now, showing that there were no randomly placed manure piles and the cow field was all grass that had grown over the manure that was spread.
May 29 2019 New Property Tour- Cow pasture shown around 10:30
When The Devoted Barn took over property management in June of 2019, they very quickly built massive piles of manure that directly interfered with the wetlands. The grove of trees directly below the cow field, to the left was cleared and became a massive dumping ground. Photos below.
April 2020
July 2020
They were eventually required to remove this massive pile, and it has all been removed now, but not before it forever altered the landscape where it was located. We have also been told that the pile caught on fire, twice. This can easily happen due to the breakdown of organic matter and the heat that it creates. Here is a news article explaining a wildfire event caused by this type of event happening. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/06/27/fire-spain-traced-manure-combusted-authorities-say/1587991001/
Below are photos from another large manure pile that was created on the property. This one was located also very near to the wetlands (see photo showing cattails) and also damaged paddock fence line. This pile has also been removed at this time, but goes to show the lack of understanding of proper manure management practices by The Devoted Barn. These photos also display that there is an extreme lack of care of maintaining property beauty and facilities.
Ok, so they removed those manure piles. That's good right? So what are they doing with the manure now? See aerial photos and video below, taken in 2022.
What these videos and photos show are massive piles of manure out in the once beautiful, grassy cow field. It is likely that some of this is from the prior managers of the farm and was scraped up from what had been spread. However, it is known that The Devoted Barn continues to add manure to these piles themselves. They will claim that they have discussed their manure management practices with Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) and what they are doing is 100% legal and correct. But are they doing it correctly? The Devoted Barn is attempting to create compost piles out of the manure, which definitely is a practice allowable by MDARD, however, there are guidelines to doing it properly. And the question remains on if the location of such gigantic piles of manure so close to the wetlands is acceptable.
Here are the MDARD 2022 Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management (GAAMPs) Practices for Manure Management and Utilization. https://www.michigan.gov/mdard/-/media/Project/Websites/mdard/documents/environment/rtf/2022-GAAMPs/2022-Manure-Management-and-Utilization-GAAMPs.pdf?rev=1243aaca1fa4426d8736f2b916263c9a&hash=08E19052830CDABF438482A35A08FDDD
Read specifically the section on Field Stockpiling (page 9) and Composting on page 11/12. This pile is not "temporarily stored" out in the cow field. The Devoted Barn intends to keep this location as a permanent site. They are also not protecting the pile from excess moisture with a cover as suggested in the section on composting.
Also noted on page 4, regarding pasture systems, is a point about field management.
Stocking densities and management systems should be employed which ensure that desirable forage species are present with an intensity of stand sufficient to slow the movement of runoff water, control soil erosion and movement of manure nutrients from the pasture land.
There are far too many cows (and it seems more are born every year) in the paddock grazing and depriving the land of a vegetation system that would stop erosion and movement of the manure from the pasture land.
Here is a very thorough publication from North Dakota State University about proper animal manure management through composting. https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/extension/publications/composting-animal-manures-guide-process-and-management-animal-manure-compost#:~:text=spreader%20calibration%20procedures.-,Summary,and%20convert%20to%20compost%20effectively
It's a long read but it is clear that there is definitely technique to ensuring that the compost is of quality and that the phosphorous levels are not harmful to crops that it is spread on. Moisture levels are important as well as making sure that the composting site is not prone to contaminating groundwater.
From the aerial photos taken, it sure looks like there is a high chance of leachate running into surface water, if it hasn't already. How is this any more acceptable than what the prior owners were doing? Two wrongs don't make a right and this like a very VERY big wrong. It is assumed that at some point MDARD, EGLE (Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy) or perhaps even the township may step in and demand that this is cleaned up. Get ready to foot another very large bill for The Devoted Barn if it comes down to that!
And remember, this is where the cows are living!! Is this your idea of "sanctuary" for these cows? Living amongst the waste of every other animal on the farm?
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