Wyrick retires from federal agency, yet continues to help area farmers

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

Jim Wyrick may have 'retired' from the NRCS, but he continues to work with area farmers. As the Soil and Water Conservation District's SB1339 project manager, Wyrick's chief duty now is to make sure poultry producers in Hopkins, Rains, and Wood counties are following their waste management plans. -- Staff photo by Cope

July 29, 2004 - After 36 years with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Jim Wyrick posted his notice to retire, and on May 31 he officially left the NRCS office in Sulphur Springs.

But Wyrick wasn't calling it quits in his career of helping area producers with the challenges of meeting environmental regulations. Wyrick basically moved his hat peg across the driveway, into a building that sits just north of the county's Farm Service Agency Center which houses the NRCS office. His goal is to, again, help area producers.

In his one-man office, Wyrick is manager for the Hopkins-Rains and Wood counties Soil and Water Conservation District's SB1339 Project. This state-funded program specifically deals with poultry farms' waste management plans for litter and mortality.

Senate Bill 1339, passed during the 2001 Texas legislative session, requires owners or operators of poultry facilities to implement and maintain certified water quality management plans. This requirement, which took effect Jan. 1, 2002, stipulates a poultry farm with more than 127,000 birds have a permit.

Wyrick oversees the poultry operations' plans in a three-county area where the poultry industry is growing, "especially in the last five or six years." In Hopkins County, Wyrick said there are currently 62 broiler and breeder farms, and about 50 in Wood County, but "with Pilgrim's new (rendering, processing) plant coming, that could bring about 300 more poultry farms to the area."

Wyrick's job involves providing "technical and financial assistance to poultry producers to meet the new environmental regulations," Wyrick said. "I have no regulatory authority, but I can point out where there are some problems" so the poultry producer meets State Water Code regulations.

A state provision provides 75 percent cost-share funds (up to $10,000) to producers if they need assistance for purchasing items such as incinerators or freezers (for poultry mortality handling) or litter-handling devices. These state "503" funds will likely be available Sept. 1, when the Texas Legislature session begins. The Hopkins-Rains-Wood County portion of the funds is $150,000 for 2005.

Wyrick is in the process of visiting all poultry operations within the three counties to review their waste management plan. The plan is a necessity for obtaining the permit, and the permit is a necessity to stay in the poultry production business.

"First I do a status review at the poultry farm," Wyrick detailed. "I take their plan (which is on file at his office) and make sure they are following the rules and provisions they've laid out in their farm's plan."

Wyrick also visits the area's small dairies to go over their waste-handling plan.

Since the plans are on file in Wyrick's office, he contacts each of the farm's owners and sets an appointment for a visit. "But with farmers, it's hard to catch them in the house, ... so this one guy, I had tried calling several times, but then I just went by there early one morning and talked with him out in his front yard about setting up an appointment," Wyrick said.

(Producers who need to contact Wyrick may call him at 903-885-6458 or email wyrick@cox-internet.com.)

But going extra steps comes with the job - and Wyrick's been in this line of work for decades. So why make a career move that keeps him in a similar field? Wyrick, 57, simply points out his current job is "less stressful." As the SB1339 project manager for the three counties, Wyrick deals only with poultry farms, and a few dairies, instead of all the Farm Bill-designated programs that come down the line through a county's NRCS office.

And when Wyrick officially retires? He said he still has plans to be involved with helping farmers. "I will probably go into private consulting," he said. Wyrick, a Dublin native, said he and his wife will remain in Hopkins County, where his daughters have married "local boys," and he will reserve time to do more things with his two grandkids.