Walker’s initial budget proposal was axed by the Legislature’s budget committee in an effort to remove non-fiscal items from the spending plan. A staffer at the office of state Sen. Rob Cowles, who chairs the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, said no one in the office could address the matter on Friday. According to Wispolitics.com, Cowles, R-Green Bay, said earlier this year that he had no interest in bringing the proposal back as standalone legislation, and he knew of no other lawmakers that were.

Walker spokesman Tom Evenson didn’t return a message asking who in the Legislature Walker was working with to advance the proposal.

A dairy farm is considered a CAFO when it houses more than 700 dairy cows. Numbering only about 50 in the state in 2000, the number of dairy CAFOs increased to more than 250 by 2013, and the number of cows housed in such operations is increasing. The millions of pounds of manure produced the large dairy operations pose risks of contaminated groundwater and fouled lakes and streams.