Massive flocks of starlings invade land and air around Burmester Road near Grantsville each winter, according to a homeowner in the area.
Burmester resident Dale Swindle said thousands of birds roost in several trees on his property every winter and leave “deposits” on his truck parked outside his home.
“They are a pain in the neck because they are so messy,” Swindle said. “I have a lot of elm trees and olive trees and they’re up in those trees. When I come out of the house, they take flight in a massive whoosh, and ‘Bam,’ something hits my hat.”
He said the number of starlings increases in the winter and dwindles in the summer.
“Normally, there are a lot of starlings, but this winter I’ve seen more of them in the fields,” he said.
There is a possibility the increase of starlings on the ground may be due to farmers in the area who are using whey as fertilizer, according to Bryan Slade, environmental health director at the Tooele County Health Department.
“The health department has periodically received complaints from people living in the area in regard to smells and flies,” Slade said. “But the last two winters, we have been getting calls about starlings and other birds being attracted to the whey and causing problems for residents.”
He said CARNE Food Production Solutions from Burley, Idaho, has been providing whey fertilizer to Higley Farms in the north Burmester area near Interstate 80.
CARNE is an affiliate of Gibby Group, LLC & Affiliates. Gibby Group specializes in the development and commercialization of nutritional value-added food, feed, fertilizer products and management services, according to gibbygroup.com.
Slade said any complaints the county receives about the birds are forwarded to the Utah State Division of Environmental Quality and CARNE.
Patrick Sheehan of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality – Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste, said that he, members of CARNE company, and owners of Higley Farms planned to meet at 10 a.m. in Burmester on Thursday to discuss the situation.
“Higley Farms has an approved plan of operation with us to use whey to improve soil conditions,” Sheehan said. “We’ve received complaints from residents in the area about huge amounts of starlings that could be attracted to the whey.”
He said whey waste is a byproduct from dairies and is 95- to 98-percent water.
“Higley Farms is coordinating the use of whey with CARNE and they’ve done this for a few years and do have an approved plan of operation,” Sheehan said. “CARNE has done this same things at several other locations in Utah.”
“We have spoken to the CARNE people about the complaints and they recently voluntarily stopped having their trucks deliver to this location,” Sheehan said.
Allan Moore, of DEQ, said that part of the approved plan is for the whey to be incorporated or tilled into the soil so it doesn’t pool up.
“When everything is done right the whey is beneficial to the soil and breaks down the alkali in the soil,” Moore said.
Phone calls to Higley Farms on Wednesday for comment were not returned.
Research papers on the benefits of whey application to soil — after a nine-year study by U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, Utah State University, Brigham Young University and others — is linked to the Gibby Group website gibbygroup.com.