The Environmental Protection Agency announced March 5 a plan for regulating the 6,600 largest animal feeding operations across the country, targeting those in the most sensitive environments first. Animal waste rules for pork and poultry producers will be rewritten by December 2001. Purdue University animal scientist Alan Sutton, who literally helped write the book on animal waste management, says well-managed operations pose little threat to water quality, regardless of size. They've tackled the concerns on a number of fronts, according to Purdue agricultural engineer Don Jones. Since December, Jones and Sutton have been busy teaching manure management to the state's 3,800 animal producers who hold confined feeding permits.
Producers also fill out a manure management plan for their operations.
These are good pollution prevention measures that will help producers pay attention. It could even help them save money. In addition to providing producer education, Purdue specialists also are studying better methods of manure disposal that also could help producers' bottom-line. For example, correctly applying manure to corn fields saves money and boosts yields. He and Jones also have developed computer-based programs to help make manure applications more accurate.