Established by Travis Hertneky a licensed Professional Engineer, THEngineering offers agricultural consulting and engineering solutions to the agricultural community. THEngineering is built on over a decade of experience navigating the ever evolving regulatory requirements placed on modern agriculture, and a lifetime of experience being in your shoes as a producer. THEngineering is a progressive firm providing accurate, timely and economical services tailored to your specific needs.
With a strong working background in regulatory mitigation THEngineering is your solution for your new facility design. Whether you are looking to expand your dairy, feedyard, or grain handling system or simply upgrade your irrigation system to sprinkler or subsurface drip (SDI), THEngineering has a solution that will meet current regulations and more importantly work for you day to day.
Whether you are a Confined Animal Feeding Operation CAFO in need of a Waste Management System or Nutrient Management Plan NMP to be in compliance with local or EPA regulations, or a local COOP in need of a Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plan SPCC, THEngineering has a solution for your operation.
Travis is a registered NRCS Technical Service Provider TSP in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming which allows THEngineering to design your cost shared project with funds reimbursed from NRCS.
How do you currently schedule your irrigations?
- Do you turn your pivot on and forget it in fear of getting behind?
- Do you irrigate only when water is available?
- Do you probe an area nearest the pivot road?
- Do you base it on a weather station; located how many miles away?
Introducing a cost effective irrigation scheduling service that not only gives you professional recommendations, but also provides you the information to back it up and ultimately allows YOU to make the decisions that matter.
- Equipment
Sentek™ Capacitance soil moisture probes- Remote telemetry
- Easy to use web interface
- Service
Installation- Removal
- In season consulting and scheduling recommendations
- A second professional set of eyes and opinions
- Benefits
Increased plant health by providing a better root environment- Reduced pumping cost
- Reduced leaching of Nitrogen
- Equipment
- Sentek™ Capacitance soil moisture probes
- Remote telemetry
- Easy to use web interface
- Service
- Installation
- Removal
- In season consulting and scheduling recommendations
- A second professional set of eyes and opinions
- Benefits
- Increased plant health by providing a better root environment
- Reduced pumping cost
- Reduced leaching of Nitrogen
Complimentary services:
- EC Mapping
- Variable rate irrigation prescriptions
- Variable rate planting prescriptions
- NDVI Imagery
Actual data from 2011 growing season
- Soil Moisture probes saved this growers crop
- Over applications cost this farmer 3.6″ of water and who knows how much Nitrogen
- Impacts of water stress on corn yield
On October 13, 2011 EPA extended the deadline for farms and ranches to have a Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plan (SPCC) implemented from November 10, 2011 to May 10, 2013. Rule of course is subject to no adverse comments after publication in the public register.
This rule affects all operations with greater than 1,320 gal above ground storage in 55 gal or larger vessels, or greater than 42,000 gal buried tanks. Facilities with tanks smaller than 5,000 gal and less than 10,000 gal total storage may “self-certify” their plan. Larger storage facilities will need and engineered plan. Feel free to contact THEngineering for a complete engineered plan or for direction on a self-certified plan.
More_information about extension (http://www NULL.epa NULL.gov/osweroe1/content/spcc/spcc_extfarms NULL.htm)
More information about ag SPCC Plans (http://www NULL.epa NULL.gov/osweroe1/content/spcc/spcc_ag NULL.htm)
Exemption applies to milk, product containers, milk production equipment on farms.
Source: NMPF news release
ARLINGTON, Va. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today issued a final exemption clarifying that dairy farms don’t have to treat milk the same as petroleum products under the Spill, Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulation.
(See Full Article) (http://www NULL.agweb NULL.com/article/epa_finalizes_dairy_exemption_sought_by_nmpf_for_oil_spill_regulation_of_milk_tanks/)
Regulation 81 is a Colorado water quality regulation for Animal Feeding Operations (AFO) and their larger counterpart Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) that don’t choose to obtain a discharge permit. Regulation 81 has required that all wastewater ponds meet a seepage requirement for quite some time however the regulation was re-written in 2007 and became effective in June 2008. The new regulation requires all non-permitted facilities to maintain a Facility Management Plan (FMP) which documents their facilities groundwater and stormwater protection systems.
Groundwater protection elements took place immediately upon regulation adoption as seepage requirements were already mandatory. Nutrient management requirements became effective February 2009, requiring agronomic application and in many cases setbacks and buffers to water sources. Surface water protection elements were delayed as it was not previously mandatory as the requirement to obtain a permit was dropped. The regulation gave a delayed deadline to have surface water protection elements in place and documented by May 30, 2011.
The surface water protection elements essentially mirror the regulation 61 permit requirements and require that your facility can adequately convey and catch the runoff from a 25 year – 24 hour, or chronic storm. The means that all the diversions on your facility that divert stormwater to ponds or divert clean water from running onto your facility must be sized and documented. Stormwater ponds must be of a certain size, and need to have a gauge to ensure that they are pumped down low enough to catch the design storm. Many ponds will also require a spillway to ensure that the embankment is not washed out if the ponds overflow. This documentation needs to reflect the current conditions and should contain certifications stamped by a professional engineer.
Details of the requirements can be found on page 9 of the regulation in section 81.6(1)
Regulation_81 (http://www NULL.cdphe NULL.state NULL.co NULL.us/regulations/wqccregs/100281confinedanimalfeedingregsnew NULL.pdf)
Regulation_81_CAFO_fact_sheet (http://www NULL.cdphe NULL.state NULL.co NULL.us/oeis/eap/eapdocs/cafofactsheet NULL.pdf)
Regulation 81 also has important requirements for medium AFO’s. The regulation does not require medium AFO’s to have stormwater ponds, however requires that you do have one it must meet the seepage requirements. Ponds may also be required to store process generated wastewater from cleaning activities and must be sized to provide adequate winter storage.
Regulation_81_AFO_fact_sheet (http://www NULL.cdphe NULL.state NULL.co NULL.us/oeis/eap/eapdocs/afofactsheet NULL.pdf)
THEngineering knows your Dairy operation’s difficulties and concerns.
Our production level roots allow THEngineering to provide superior services incorporating solutions that work and don’t add to your daily chore list.
THEngineering has the answer for your problems from calf to feeder.
THEngineering knows your beef operation’s difficulties and concerns – whether it be pulling a calf on a cold dark February morning, riding pens in September, or chasing fats off the highway at midnight, we’ve been there.
These production level roots allow THEngineering to provide superior services to you – incorporating solutions that work and don’t add to your daily chore list.
