Furthermore, barley is also a major component of cattle feedlot rations. Environmental Issues Environmental issues for intensive livestock operations focuses primarily on manure management. In particular, separating new intensive livestock operations from neighbours is necessary to limit complaints about odour. In addition, treating manure spreading as waste disposal rather than application of crop nutrients to farmland can lead to nutrient applications in excess of crop requirements. Consequently, Alberta's livestock associations have taken the lead in developing voluntary guidelines to assist municipalities and producers in siting, design and management of new and expanding livestock facilities.
Some municipalities have development bylaws that use the Code of Practice's criteria.
Since odour is the principal criteria for siting intensive livestock operations, the human population density of the rural area is a key indicator of how close neighbours will be to an operation. Statistically, areas with high population densities have more neighbours to question the establishment of a new operation Figure 4 . Rural areas with small farms and rural acreages generally have residents who are not familiar with the smells and operation of intensive livestock operations. As well, even in predominantly agricultural areas, proposers of new operations are now finding that neighbouring farmers can be as vigorous in questioning new operations as non-agricultural rural residents. Odour nuisance is often only the launching point for other attacks on the industry including such issues as runoff, nutrient leaching to groundwater and nutrient management.