Mont. - Voluntarily implementing a comprehensive nutrient management plan for an animal feeding operation with under 1,000 animals can help prevent the operation from becoming classified as a concentrated animal feeding operation, which would then require a waste discharge permit.
Water is a livestock enterprise's most essential resource.
Therefore, it is no wonder that the availability and quantity of water on livestock operations is what is first addressed by producers, rather than the quality of that water. However, a goal of today's society is to ensure that U.S. waters are clean enough to be both swimmable and fishable. Livestock agriculture can play a major role in maintaining or reaching this goal. Nearly all operations have one or more locations that could be described as an animal feeding operation. The permit required is the Montana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.