The Gary, South Dakota, office of Wayne Viessman of Viessman Trucking is listed as the business address of Lake County Dairy LLC, which organized this spring and bought the Swier Dairy near Ramona, eight miles north of my house.
Another of Viessman's LLC ventures, Veblen (SD)-based Dairy Dozen, is in dutch again with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The Dairy Dozen's Thief River Falls (MN) facility, the notoriously foul Excel Dairy, is in bankruptcy, like pretty much everything else touched by the Veblen dairy "entrepreneurs." The bankruptcy trustee moved to sell Excel Dairy this month.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which firmly denied Excel its operating permit in April 2010, objected to the sale, saying Dairy Dozen/Thief River Falls has failed to lower manure levels in one of the dairy's basins to proper levels. A Minnesota court issued that manure reduction order on January 20, 2010. Dairy Dozen did not comply. On August 18, 2010, a judge found Dairy Dozen in contempt of court and ordered the manure levels be lowered to specs within ten days. Dairy Dozen did not comply.
Last week, MPCA's Michael Sharp inspected the Thief River Falls manure basin and found (as of June 27) that Dairy Dozen still had not complied with the court order. MPCA thus argues that selling the dairy would violate state law and frustrate environmental enforcement.
If Mr. Viessman or any other Dairy Dozen partners are involved in managing the Ramona dairy, I hope they will show more respect for the laws and courts of Lake County and South Dakota than they have shown for the laws and courts of Minnesota... not to mention the land and people around Thief River Falls.
Read here the MPCA's objection and supporting documents, including the two court orders the Dairy Dozen has flagrantly violated.
With the small farms out, what will be left if the big guys quit. The little guys maybe were not as inefficient as the big ones. There is a concept in economics called the point of diminishing returns. We usually look at bigger is more efficient but there comes a limit to that and I think we are finding that limit.
Yes, the concept of diminishing returns is true,but , when the little guy hits that he is out!!!!! when the big guys hit that the big boys run to the government and the fsa,the banks etc. step in and say,Hey, file a chapter 12 and screw all your creditors and get a new line of machinery and and don't forget that new ford with all the gadgets so you can ride around see how the little guy is trying to survive on that minimum wage he is drawing to feed his family!!!!!!
I would have to say this situation appears to be just another example of how the Obama administration (and those liberal democrats) has hampered small businessmen with regulations that make impossible successful business formation and profit. Just think how profitable Mr. Viessman and his ilk could be if they didn't have those damn democrats/regulators in their way.
What is failed to be mentioned in the article or the affadavits is that AgStar (the bank) is financing the clean up of the manure that's left over, much like they did at Veblen East.
Neither Millner nor Viessman have anything to do with Excel Dairy except on paper.
And the clean up is happening! Liquid and solid manures are being applied in a professional and environmentally friendly manner as weather (rain) conditions permit. One could reasonably expect it to be cleaned up by the July 27th hearing.
Wouldn't it be more prudent to report on the good that is happening there than what isn't?