County Stalls Moooove on Size of Herds

Faced with strong community opposition, San Diego County supervisors Wednesday postponed a decision to allow some dairies to dramatically expand their herds.

Amid complaints from many North County residents that the plan would worsen existing odor and pollution problems, the supervisors delayed action until Feb. 11 on a measure that would allow seven dairies to increase their herd size to 10 dairy cows, plus replacement stock of 15 cows under 3 years old, per acre.

Existing regulations permit two cows for each of a farm’s first four acres and one cow per each additional acre. The seven so-called “non-conforming” dairies that would be affected by the proposal, all but one in North County, are exempt from that limit because they were in business when the ordinance was passed in the 1970s.

Most of the complaints at Wednesday’s hearing focused on 323-acre Whelan Dairy near Oceanside, which has about 1,200 head of cattle--more than 800 above its legal limit.

Oceanside City Councilman Sam Williamson, noting that about 10,000 of his city’s residents “live within nose shot” of the dairy, said that odors from the dairy are, in the words of resident Olga Johnson, a “nauseating problem.”