Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Media contact: Forrest Peterson, 320-214-3789 Technical contact: Lisa Scheirer, 218-846-0498 Toll-free: 1-800-657-3864 St. Paul, Minn. -- Re-registration currently is under way for nearly 32,000 livestock feedlots in Minnesota. The initial registration took place in January 2002. Feedlot owners are required to register their feedlot once every four years. In the 54 counties delegated to administer the state's feedlot rule, the county conducted re-registration for a majority of feedlots. In other counties, feedlot owners must submit the updates to their Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) regional office. Re-registration forms have been mailed to feedlot owners in these non-delegated counties. They are due Jan. 1, 2006. Registration requires owners of feedlots or manure storage areas to provide general information about their operation, such as name and address, facility location, type of operation, number of animal units and distance to surface water. It is designed to facilitate regulation without requiring detailed operating permits for smaller feedlots under 300 animal units. "Under the old rule, nearly all feedlots were required to have a permit. Now most only need to register, but still must comply with laws and rules to protect water quality," says Wayne Anderson, MPCA agriculture liaison. "This allows us to focus on priorities while reducing paperwork both for producers and the agency." "The overall response to feedlot registration since 2002 has been positive," says Bob Finley, manager of the MPCA feedlot program. "Keeping information on Minnesota's feedlots up-to-date is important for operating an effective program, and counties have been a great help in this effort." Registration is required for feedlots:
-- Capable of holding 50 or more animal units, or a manure storage area capable of holding the manure produced by 50 or more animal units. (Animal units are a unit of measure used to compare differences in the production of animal manure. For example, one mature dairy cow weighing more than 1,000 pounds is 1.4 animal units, one beef stock cow is 1.0 animal units, one market swine under 300 pounds is 0.3 animal units, and one turkey over 5 pounds is 0.018 animal units.)
-- Capable of holding 10 or more animal units, or a manure storage area capable of holding the manure produced by 10 or more animal units located within shoreland. (Shoreland refers to land that is 1,000 feet or less from a lake or 300 feet or less from a river or stream. Some ponds, wetlands and altered watercourses may also be classified as shoreland. County and city zoning ordinances contain a specific list of waters that have a shoreland designation.)
-- Registration is not required for pasture-only operations; however, pasture operations with a feedlot component must register the feedlot portion of the operation. For further information regarding feedlots within pasture operations, contact the MPCA or a delegated county feedlot officer.
If you have any questions about completing the Feedlot Registration Update Form or the requirement to update your current feedlot registration, please contact Lisa Scheirer at 218-846-0498 or 1-800-657-3864. For more information about the feedlot rule, visit the MPCA Web site at /hot/feedlots.