Feedlots, the rules they were a changing
Feedlot rules help manage livestock ‘waste’ as a valuable resource
While industrial waste and city sewage captured the spotlight leading to the Clean Water Act in 1972, agricultural waste was also a growing public concern.
Farmers used livestock manure as fertilizer for crops for thousands of years. In the post-war era, however, commercial fertilizers took the lead because they were cheaper and easier to use. Livestock manure often became viewed as an odorous waste.
Today, that’s changing as the cost of commercial fertilizers rise, and new technology is restoring the reputation of livestock manure as a valuable crop fertilizer. Today’s feedlot regulations focus on management rather than disposal of livestock waste.
Changes during the past 40 years
The livestock industry has changed dramatically since 1972 when there were 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 animals, and operate under federal permits.
The initial rules enacted 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 Citizens’ Board in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “It was quite an experience to be writing the first regulations,” Jim said in an interview in 2003. Fellows 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.”
County partnerships
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.
“There was no funding for counties in the early days,” Anderson says, “but counties took it on because it was the right thing to do. They recognized the value of local people being partners in this.”
Jackson County in southwestern Minnesota became first to join the delegated county program. In 1974, the county created an environment office, including parks and feedlots. The county board named the late Paul Hartman, a livestock dealer and banker from Okabena, as its first county feedlot officer.
“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.
Feedlot rules work to protect water in our agricultural areas by ensuring that:
- Manure on a feedlot or manure storage area does not run into water.
- Nutrient-rich manure is applied properly to croplands so that nutrients and other possible contaminants don't enter streams, lakes, and groundwater.