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once I became MAEAP verified got through most in the processes
a lot area farmers do stop
with questions we have a lot of rural people that come here in the fall
to buy things from us and they wanna know what the sign in the front yard
is all about. I try to explain to them
the meaning of it and what I had to do to get it done
and all in all I think it's been a good learning experience for me and it's a
good learning
for area people too when they see the sign and actually fins out what it means
to me becoming MAEAP verified is really an opportunity
to talk about all the right things that we're trying to do every single day
society want's to know more about our story
about our environmental stewardship our soil sampling
our manure sampling and as a dairy farm it's very important to us that we're
able to protect our waterways
and so the MAEAP program is a great opportunity to really have that third
leg to our stool
and be able to do the things that we do every single day
and make sure that we're able to providethe land that's going to be able to be
there for next-generation
the main reason that we jumped on board and joined the process was
because we were so close
we realize it was going to take us a monetary investment to reconfigure our
storage
our fuel storage situation that we had
you know our farm is located right a long a drainage ditch
a half-mile downstream from our drainage ditches the looking glass river
from our old fuel system that we used to have to what we have right now
is night and day different
and it was just a good thing to do for the environment and a
good thing to do when you put your head down on your pillow at night that you're not
worried about something
potentially contaminated a down river stream source
the environmental gains that I've noticed since we've become certified
is that I think it always keeps us mindful
that we need to be good stewards I can't stress that enough
the land that we've been given
on the greenhouse side we've been able to make a correction
to are fertilizer mixing station
we now have a tank within a tank so if that mixing tank were to crack or leak
the outside tank would catch that and that is
one of the changes that we've made here on the greenhouse side
If we're going to promote something that we should probably practice what we preach
and I think that was the biggest reason why
I become involved.