The University of Wisconsin has calculated that a 700-cow dairy would generate about 7 million gallons of manure a year. To empty a pit of that much manure with a Husky 5000 manure tanker legally loaded (about 3,340 gallons), it would take 2,071 trips up the road, Koles said.
A well-built and maintained road should last 40 to 70 years. “That one farm takes 30 years of life away from that one road. There’s no debate. Agriculture has an impact,” he said. “I don’t say that to be negative against the ag industry; it’s negative towards our inability to develop an infrastructure that is going to support the economy that we need in towns. The problem is, we aren’t building (roads) right in the first place because of the fact that we don’t have any money. We should be spending the half-million dollars per mile to build the heavier road for that farm, but we don’t have the money to do it.” Koles thinks one thing that will help is for agriculture to kick in."
