OREGON
The Oregon Department of Agriculture rewrote its regulations for dairy farms and adopted the final version in late September. Earlier in the year, concern spread as dairies of all sizes, even those with just a few cows, would have been required to follow regulations put into place for the state’s concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Pushback and a lawsuit from small dairy cow and goat operations followed, citing that installation of waste treatment systems needed to comply with the rules would have been cost prohibitive.
The regulations now apply to CAFOs, defined as farms that engage in the feeding or holding of animals in buildings, pens, or lots not sustaining vegetative growth in the normal growing season for 12 hours or more per day for more than 120 days in a 12-month period. Many of the smallest herds in the state do not fit that description.
