No More Neighbor Conflicts

In Ontario County, we’re no strangers to community concerns about
manure odors. Our county hosts more than a dozen large-herd dairies, integrated among extensive rural-suburban residential sprawl. More new neighbors, changes in dairy practices, and a greater willingness of neighbors to speak out against actual and perceived odors combine to make community relations a bigger challenge than ever before.

Over the years, agriculture professionals have suggested a number of things farmers can do to engender goodwill. But hosting neighbor barbecues, giving away sweet corn and holding farm open houses can become time sponges, wicking away hours and not producing the desired results.

If dairy farm owners have time and resources to take only a few meaningful
actions to ease tensions with neighbors, they have to choose carefully. For the past few months I and others have met with farm neighbors, town officials, dairy farmers and Extension specialists to achieve a "sweet spot" where agriculture odors are tolerated as much as possible and farmers are not burdened. From those meetings, I’ve developed seven ideas of what farmers can do to address and work out neighbor concerns before they develop into conflict:

1. Understand the difficulty of dairy odors from your neighbor's point of view.
For the most part, there is nothing your neighbors can do about farm odors. There are no laws, no defense, no antidote or deodorant, and no hiding. But it’s asking a lot to expect a neighbor to "just deal with it." Everyone perceives agriculture odors and their intensity differently. The best you can do is agree with the other person’s perception, no matter how different it is from yours. A point of interest: Women are more sensitive to odors than men.

2. Treat your neighbors like they are customers.
Farm neighbor relations can be a lot like customer service. You know how you feel when you’re treated rudely in a restaurant or at DMV, for example. This is not how you want to treat your neighbors. For the most part, they deserve respect and common courtesy, just like any customer would. Of course, some neighbors are poor customers who don’t return respect or common courtesy. That person gives you an opportunity to take the high road and maintain your reputation in the community.

Good customer service should include:
• Friendly rituals: give neighbors a wave.
• Allowing neighbors to make some choices such as determine the timing for manure spreading.
• Get annoyances grouped and out of the way first: Deal with the location and duration of dust and odors.

3. Respond to concerns with a "one page plan" approach.
You may eventually be accused of any number of things: being insensitive in storing or applying manure, contaminating a pond or stream, or exploiting immigrant laborers. It would require too much detail to fully explain a practice or event on your farm in a meeting. And, in truth, most of what you want to say will fall on deaf ears. But concerned people want to see that you’re making an effort.

Instead of explaining your side of a problem in detail, simply document what you are doing to address it. In one page list:
• Each and every step you’re taking to resolve the situation.
• Who is helping you.
• What information you’re gathering and what ideas you’re exploring.
• How people can contact you.
• What you will change or possibly change in response to the concern.

Provide a copy of the document to the people raising the concern and to any public officials involved. If circumstances warrant, send it to the local newspaper. This one page document serves as a public statement of your efforts and acknowledges the public’s concerns.

4. Serve your town in local government.
Neighbor concerns with agriculture begin and end at the town
level. Serving your local community as a member of the planning board,
advisory committee or zoning board of appeals gives you a front-line
opportunity to discuss concerns with community leaders.

Start your official town service by obtaining a map of all designated
agriculture districts and agriculture zones. It will show areas of concern where agriculture and residential development may come into too-close proximity. Learn whether your town has a right-to-farm law and if so, get a copy. If not, get right-to-farm laws from adjacent towns or the county and use them as examples of what can be done in your town.

5. Develop a farm website.
A web page is one way to educate the public about agriculture and specific farm practices. It’s like having a public spokesperson explaining how your farm is run. On your website include: photos of how your farm works, descriptions of what you’re doing to protect water quality, helpful tips about the industry, and your
commentary about how your farm relates to the community. A farm website
can improve your communication with the public, the media and your neighbors about your farm. A very simple website will cost about $350.

6. Go easy on the roads.
Our rural roads weren’t built for today's farm equipment, and many nonfarm neighbors are noticing. The tractors, tillage equipment and tank trailers may make field and farm work more efficient, but neighbors and the highway superintendent often see them as problems. And more farmers are getting blamed for crumbling roads.

Sit down with your highway superintendent and ask what you can do to make sure town roads are kept in good condition. The person will know which roads need additional engineering for farm equipment and which ones are suitable. Make your highway department’s job easier by cleaning up spills and mud, even if they came from another farm. Better you made positive improvements to the road than having the neighbors call the highway crew at their taxpayer expense.

7. Do what's legal AND what's right.
Nearly every farm owner knows what is legal and what is illegal regarding
environmental, animal welfare and food production regulations. We all
work to avoid infractions of civil and criminal law. But sometimes law-abiding farmers still get into hot water with the community. They may fail to do the right thing, even though it’s legal.

The right thing is often how a practice or behavior is going to be perceived in the court of public opinion. None of us can stop our neighbors from passing judgment on how we operate our farms, but we can work to ensure those judgments are positive. This will help to avoid eventual neighbor conflicts.

Even though the law does not call for it:
• Farm animals must appear well cared for.
• Machinery must look safe and reflect the owner’s pride.
• Farm grounds in public view should be free of junk and farming
debris.
• A courteous wave or acknowledgement to a passerby enhances how
our farms will be seen and judged.

All seven of these tips are cost-effective and won’t rob you of time from your work as a farmer. But they can help you reach your goal of developing and maintaining positive neighbor relations.

Jim Ochterski is agriculture economic development specialist with Ontario County Cornell Cooperative Extension. Reach him at 585-394-3977. Ext. 402. Email: jao14@cornell.edu

To learn more…
The PRO-DAIRY website has several articles on farm-neighbor-community relations. Go to www.ansci.cornell.edu/prodairy and click on Environmental and Nutrient Management on Dairy Farms. Then click on Farm-Neighbor-Community Relations Articles.
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