Court applies Building Permit Rule to large dairy farm

Wisconsin state Supreme Court removed a regulatory hurdle Tuesday for a large dairy farm in central Wisconsin, ruling that the right to use thousands of acres for crops was locked in when project officials applied for a building permit.Wisconsin is the nation’s second-leading milk producer. Dairy operations in the state account for nearly 80,000 jobs. But the industry has been struggling with declining milk and other commodity prices the past three years, largely because of an abundance of milk on the market. Wisconsin lost 500 dairy farms in 2017.The industry has been shifting toward larger, corporate farms over the last 15 years. The state has added 229 large-scale farms, which are defined as farms with 1,000 animals or more, since 2002. Such farms generate tremendous amounts of manure and are the cause of tension with local residents and conservationists.Golden Sands Dairy has been looking to open a 6,400-acre farm in Wood County since 2012. The land was zoned unrestricted when the dairy asked the Town of Saratoga for a building permit that year. The permit application identified 100 acres as the building site and 6,388 acres within the town for agricultural use.The town re-zoned the land for preservation four months after the application was filed, barring agricultural use.The dairy sued the town. A state appeals court ruled last year that the mere filing of a building-permit application hadn’t locked in the right to use 6,388 acres for agriculture.The Supreme Court reversed that ruling Tuesday.