Feedlot, biofuel plant delayed

When the project was announced in late 2005, it called for a facility with room for 20,000 cattle. Belmont BioAg president Bob Brodbeck said Monday the initial cost of the project would have been more than $200 million. But now, after considering a recommendation from a citizen advisory committee formed by the company to evaluate the plan, the cost has been reduced to $120 million and the initial herd size will be 2,500 housed in one barn. Brodbeck believes the changes, which includes swapping out an expensive waste incinerator for a lower-cost kiln, will improve the plant's return on investment.

"As a result of those two changes, the (state Department of Natural Resources) didn't want to proceed with the existing environmental impact (report) that we had submitted last February," he said. "That's what has consequently held us up." 

If the permitting process goes smoothly the second time, Brodbeck said construction should get begin this summer, with the plant operational by late 2008. He said the majority of the project's capital funding still needs to be raised.

The plant would be just south of Belmont, 65 miles southwest of Madison, in the town of Elk Grove. The project has been touted as environmentally friendly and efficient, using its own waste to supply power for operations. It would produce finished beef, ethanol, bedding and potted plants, distillers grain, carbon dioxide, electricity, ammonia products and fertilizer. 

Local residents have voiced concerns about the odor of such a plant and the herd size was already reduced once, to 5,000 last spring.

However, Belmont BioAg still intends to apply for a permit for eight barns housing 20,000 head of cattle. "We'll let the market determine how many head will end up, ultimately, being a part of this campus," Brodbeck said. "It is dependent upon the local farmers, if they decide that this custom feed operation is providing them with the gain per day that they would like to see ... it will speak for itself." 

Belmont BioAg has received a conditional-use permit from Lafayette County and recently signed a development agreement with the town to improve one mile of Holland Road, which the plant will border, said Dale Wills, chairman of the Elk Grove Town Board.

Wills believes the company has addressed the concerns raised by residents. "They're doing the best to accommodate everyone's needs and wishes and concerns," he said. "As a whole, I think it's a pretty well- thought-out development." 

Wills, who owns a beef farm a mile from the proposed plant, said Belmont BioAg would fit well in the agriculturally dependent county.

"The only thing we have in the county is basically agriculture," Wills said. "So I don't know how we can say no."