Techniques are available to utilize the manure in an environmentally sound manner, particularly if adequate land acreage is near the confinement facilities. This concentration of animal production facilities has been most prevalent with poultry and more recently with swine. For dairies and beef feeding operations, the management of manure is one of their most difficult problems, just as it is for poultry and swine. The large confinement operations have received most of the attention, but it is more likely that large production units will be able to solve their problems easier than the numerous small livestock operations. The small operation will have a more difficult time to afford additional capital investment for manure management technology than will the larger operation.
Extension has existing programs which focus on small farm and animal production units.
There is a great deal of activity at the state or local level on regulations or restrictions that would control the livestock and poultry production facilities. This is likely not a complete list of states, but it does show that at the national level, manure management is a key issue for not only livestock and poultry producers, but also for many other citizens. Water quality can be impacted by rainfall runoff from land applied manures. Rains following land application can produce runoff that will transport nutrients and bacteria to nearby lakes and rivers. The use of buffer strips, which are permanent grassed areas, along rivers and lakes will reduce the potential of nutrients and bacteria reaching the surface water supplies.