A Grantsville farmer is delighted with the results he gets from using whey as a fertilizer for his fields, but health officials say he needs to make sure it ends up “incorporated” into the ground soon after he receives it.
An official with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality met with Grantsville farmer Jared Higley on Thursday to discuss ways to incorporate the fertilizer into the ground to avoid attracting starlings to the area.
“There seems to be a likely connection with the use of whey and the increase in starlings,” said Patrick Sheehan, environmental scientist with DEQ.
Sheehan also met with a representative from the CARNE company of Burley, Idaho. CARNE has supplied whey to Higley Farms for about three years, according to Sheehan.
“We walked the facility and determined some issues. Field No. 2 is where the starlings are congregated,” Sheehan said. “Jared Higley was tilling that field on Thursday. We want the material incorporated into the soil. One method is tilling and there are other methods. The whey also can be incorporated through irrigation.”
Higley Farms has an approved plan of operation with DEQ to use whey as a soil conditioner, but after some complaints by area residents about an increase in the number of birds, CARNE has stopped supplying whey to Higley Farms for now, according to Sheehan.
He said fertilizer products scheduled for Higley Farms are being sent to another farm in Idaho instead.
Higley Farms has a total of 1,433 acres with 1,028 irrigated and 415 dry farmed with alfalfa as the main crop to feed a herd of 500 cows.
Like clockwork, starlings invade Burmester in the winter. Mid-January through mid-February is prime time for the birds, Higley said.
“I don’t know they’re any worse this year than they have been in the past, maybe a little bit thicker,” he said.
“I wish I could find it, but I had a photo from five years ago where my house was totally blacked out with starlings,” Higley added.
He said the starlings will migrate out of the area in about one more month.
“They [the starlings] do eat a little bit of it, but they also could be eating the noodles,” he said.
Higley explained that noodles are another product delivered to his farm by CARNE.
“They (CARNE) dump it on the ground too. It is a waste product from making noodles for TV dinners. It’s supposed to be a really good fertilizer,” Higley said.
“Usually with the whey, we will sprinkle or flood irrigate to incorporate it into the ground. We disc in the noodles,” Higley said.
CARNE is an affiliate of Gibby Group, LLC. It specializes in the development and commercialization of nutritional value-added food, feed, fertilizer products and management services, according to gibbygroup.com
The Grantsville farmer is sold on whey as a fertilizer.
“It almost doubles our production of crops,” Higley said. “I noticed that where it was used our grass was more than twice as tall than where it wasn’t used.”
The website allaboutbirds.org confirms that starlings are not particular in their eating habits.
They gorge on insects, beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, earthworms, caterpillars, snails, millipedes and insect larvae. They also eat fruits, berries, seeds, grains and other plant matter. Additionally, when dumpsters and trash bins are left open, they feed on garbage, according to the website.
Bryan Slade, environmental health director at the Tooele County Health Department, said his department has received complaints from people living in the area regarding smells and flies during the summer.
“The last two winters, we have been getting calls about starlings and other birds being attracted to the whey and causing problems for residents,” Slade said.
Higley said he tries to keep everybody in the area happy, but sometimes he hears the complaints.
“It’s hard to please everyone,” he said.