Violation of this regulation by a producer is punishable in civil and criminal arenas. In essence, this regulation eliminates the practice of allowing ANY wastewater to run off a dairy production facility. Dairy farmers have little or no information about the various costs of complying with waste regulations under dairy practices used in Mississippi. The dairy facilities and selected waste-management procedures are described in this publication, along with the associated labor requirements and costs for handling dairy wastes. The costs described are those of a 150-cow total confinement system with free stalls bedded with sand.
Cows have brief exercise periods in confined lots.
The average time associated with the clean out of the free stall area is about 1.37 hours per day. The cost of water associated with this operation to flush the alleys is not estimated in any of these systems. The other significant cost of operating a management system under total confinement criteria is the cost of cleaning the parlor during and after milking. The time consumed in the parlor-washing process under total confinement was 1.6 hours. The final portion of this system is the labor involved in maintaining the waste-management system.