Feedlot rules help manage livestock ‘waste’ as a valuable resource

For release: October 2, 2012

Contact: Forrest Peterson, 320-441-6972

Note to editors: This is the second in a series of stories from the MPCA about the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. For more information on the Act and its legacy, visit http://www.pca.state.mn.us/bkzq1482.

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Feedlot rules help manage livestock ‘waste’ as a valuable resource

St. Paul -- While industrial waste and city sewage captured the spotlight leading up to the Clean Water Act in 1972, agricultural waste was also a growing public concern.

For thousands of years, farmers used livestock manure as fertilizer for crops. However, in recent decades, commercial fertilizer took the lead because it was cheaper and easier to use.  Livestock manure often came to be viewed as an odorous waste. And when allowed to run off into waterways, it causes pollution.

The “waste” reputation is reflected in Minnesota’s rules enacted in 1971 to regulate livestock feedlots through the MPCA’s Agricultural Waste Division.

Today, that’s changing as rising costs for commercial fertilizer and new technology are restoring the reputation of livestock manure as a valuable crop fertilizer. Today’s feedlot regulations focus on management rather than disposal of livestock waste.

Over the past 40 years, the livestock industry has changed dramatically. In 1972, Minnesota Agricultural Statistics reported about 100,000 livestock feedlots in the state. Today, there are fewer feedlots, but more of them are much larger. Of the approximately 25,000 registered feedlots in Minnesota today, about 1,200 of the largest house the majority of animal numbers, and operate under federal permits.

The initial rules in 1971 required livestock producers to control runoff from feedlots, and to properly use manure as a fertilizer. It set priorities for making feedlot improvements, triggered by complaints about pollution problems or plans for feedlot expansion.

“The whole idea of environmental protection was fairly new, and it received a lot of public acceptance,” says Wayne Anderson, who began working in the MPCA feedlot program in 1972. “We were able to find a way to link the public acceptance of environmental protection to farmer awareness of manure as a resource.”

The late Milton “Jim” Fellows, a Worthington area farmer, served on the MPCA citizen’s board in the late 1960s and early 70s.  “It was quite an experience to be writing the first regulations,” Jim said in an interview in 2003.  He received one of the first Solid Waste-Ag permits, not for a pollution problem at his cattle feedlot, but “because if we expected others to do it, I would do it myself.  We used the site as example of feedlot pollution control.”     

In 1974, the MPCA launched a program that brought counties into direct participation with regulation of livestock feedlots. Today, 55 counties participate in the delegated county agreement.

“They recognized the value of local people being partners in this,” Anderson says. “There was no funding for counties in the early days, but they took it on because it was the right thing to do.”

Jackson County in southwestern Minnesota became first to join the delegated county program. The county was in the process of reorganizing, and in 1974 created an environment office, including parks and feedlots. The Jackson County Extension agent, Ray Palmby, urged the county board to become delegated and name a county feedlot officer. The job went to the late Paul Hartman, a livestock dealer and banker from Okabena.

“Paul and I drove around to meet with farmers,” Wayne said. “We were out soliciting in many counties, meeting with county commissioners, and making personal contact. We’ve come a long way since then, with providing training and some funding for counties.”

Dennis Hanselman, who succeeded Hartman as Jackson County feedlot officer in 1978 until 1990, recalls the early years. “Overall, it worked fairly well. We were ahead of other counties in planning and zoning, and feedlot permits. Land application was a big problem, and odor complaints, mostly from open pits.” Hanselman later joined the MPCA staff in Detroit Lakes, retiring last year.

The MPCA regulates the collection, transportation, storage, processing and disposal of animal manure and other livestock operation wastes. The rules apply to most aspects of livestock waste management including the location, design, construction, operation and management of feedlots and manure handling facilities.

There are two primary concerns about feedlots in protecting water in our agricultural areas:

• Ensuring that manure on a feedlot or manure storage area does not run into water;
• Ensuring that nutrient-rich manure is applied to cropland at a rate, time and method that prevents nutrients and other possible contaminants from entering streams, lakes and ground water.  

Following a major revision of the state’s feedlot rules (Chapter 7020) in 2000, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized the state’s feedlot program: “Minnesota has a unique and successful program for preventing water pollution from feedlots. In addition to ensuring that larger feedlots meet Clean Water Act regulations, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency works effectively with county governments, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to make sure that feedlots of all sizes control pollution.”

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The mission of the MPCA is to work with Minnesotans to protect, conserve and improve our environment and enhance our quality of life.

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