Livestock Feedlots in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin

What Rosendale Dairy actually is, and the permit that governs it

Rosendale Dairy sits on roughly 2,000 acres in the Town of Rosendale, Fond du Lac County, near the unincorporated community of Pickett, and is owned by Milk Source, one of Wisconsin's larger dairy operators. It is regulated as a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) under a Wisconsin DNR Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit -- the same state permitting mechanism that applies to any sufficiently large livestock operation in Wisconsin, not something unique to this one farm. The current permit caps the operation at 5,750 Animal Units (AU), a standardized measure that converts different types and sizes of livestock into a common unit; reporting on the facility has described actual head counts in the 8,000+ dairy cow range at various points, producing tens of thousands of gallons of milk daily.

The DNR has separately approved a Phase II expansion path that would raise the permitted total to 11,500 AU, alongside an expanded manure-application land base of roughly 12,000 acres -- the farmland (both owned and under agreement with other landowners) where the operation's liquid manure is applied as fertilizer under its nutrient management plan. That expanded land base is the detail most relevant to a land buyer who isn't planning to run cattle at all: a parcel included in a CAFO's manure-management plan, even without being part of the dairy operation itself, is subject to spreading schedules, setback requirements from wells and surface water, and periodic soil-nutrient testing tied to that plan.

How Wisconsin's CAFO permitting process actually works

A Wisconsin livestock operation crosses into CAFO/WPDES-permit territory generally around 1,000 Animal Units (roughly 700 dairy cows, using standard conversion factors), though the DNR can require a permit for smaller operations found to be discharging pollutants. Once permitted, a WPDES permit sets a maximum AU cap, requires a nutrient management plan covering manure storage and land application, and requires periodic reporting and inspection. An expansion beyond an existing cap -- as with Rosendale Dairy's Phase II -- requires a permit modification, typically including a public notice and comment period and a DNR environmental analysis before approval.

For a buyer, this means a large dairy or livestock operation's footprint on the surrounding land isn't fixed at whatever exists today -- it can expand under a documented, public regulatory process, and a neighboring parcel's manure-application status can change with it. If you're evaluating land near any large livestock operation in the county, ask the DNR (or search the DNR's WPDES permit database directly) for the current permit, its AU cap, and its associated land-application acreage, rather than relying on what you can observe on the ground today.

What to actually check before buying near a large livestock operation here

• Search the Wisconsin DNR WPDES permit database directly for any CAFO permit covering the specific operation and confirm its current AU cap and manure-application acreage.
• Ask whether the parcel you're considering is itself included in a neighboring CAFO's nutrient management plan as manure-application land -- this can apply even to land the CAFO doesn't own, under a landowner agreement.
• For agricultural land you intend to farm yourself near an existing large operation, confirm well-water setback and any local (town-level, since Fond du Lac County has no general zoning) livestock-density or odor-related ordinance that might apply.
• For rural-residential or recreational land near a large dairy, factor in realistic odor, truck-traffic, and manure-spreading-season considerations that don't show up in a standard listing -- visiting the area at different times of year, if possible, is a reasonable diligence step.