CAFOs Affect Neighbor's Property

Study: CAFOs Affect Neighbor's Property, published in The Joplin Globe, May 25, 2008, describes a Barton County (MO) farmer's attempt to explain an unusually high number of twin calves with deformities in his Angus cattle herd. The rural Golden City farmer, Darvin Bentlage, says that his cattle are downstream from a hog CAFO lagoon (owned by Synergy LLC of Lamar). He wonders if waste water has made its way into a creek used by the herd with the excessive number of twins. He explained that "I know hog hormones affect cattle. We do embryo transplants. They use pig hormones to get cows to produce more eggs."
The article references the Pew Commission Report. Bob Martin, chairman of the Pew Commission is quoted as saying that the concern raised by Bentlage about his herd is justified.
The article also describes an effort on the part of Bentlage, and a neighbor, Zach McGuire, to identify the number of CAFOs in Barton County. They have counted 60-Class 2 and 11-Class 1 poultry and hog CAFOs in the eastern two-thirds of Barton County. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) webpage on CAFOs show only six. Bentlage discovered that the CAFOs are all placed next to a creek or stream. "Parking a lagoon right on a creek, well, that's just Russian roulette".