Animal Units

 How many units is a cow? Depends… Bingham County commissioners recently held a public hearing to discuss the 13th draft of a controversial zoning ordinance that’s been in the works for three years. One thing under discussion is how to separate agricultural from residential property.  Remember, Bingham County is farm country but there are some residential areas where, apparently, people are raising too many animals. So Bingham County Commissioner Cleone Jolley says they’re implementing a mathematical formula. Listen to the conversation: “We’ve got an animal unit, let me find that, this is 220 pages, what we’ve described as an animal unit, a bull or a steer is one unit, a feeder cow is one unit, a dairy heifer is one unit, a beef cow in a pair is 1.1 unit, a dairy cow is 1.4 units, a feeder calf is .5 units, calf up to 6 months is .1 units, (How many units is a chicken?) a chicken is .1”

The idea is in residential zones, there has to be a limit on farm animals ‘cause not everyone thinks alike. “One guy likes fresh eggs when he gets up in the morning and the guy next door hates to hear the rooster crow…absolutely.”