Animal Waste Management Economics

The Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center , a National Facilitation Project of the CSREES National Integrated Water Quality Program, and The National Center for Manure & Animal Waste Management , funded by the USDA Fund for Rural America, are important projects helping USDA address this issue.

Economics of Animal Waste Management

There are costs and benefits in implementing animal waste management practices and complying with animal waste regulations. USDA CSREES sponsors research into the economics of animal waste management to improve and protect water quality.

Accomplishments:

The USDA Economic Research Service published a report Manure Management for Water Quality: Costs to Animal Feeding Operations of Applying Manure Nutrients to Land .It examines on-farm technical choice and producer costs across major U.S. production areas for hauling manure to the minimum amount of land needed to assimilate manure nutrients. A regional analysis then focuses on off-farm competition for land to spread surplus manure, using the Chesapeake Bay region as a case study.

A research project at the University of Puerto Rico studied the impact of new regulations on egg layer operations in Puerto Rico (Davila and Toro, 2003). They concluded that compliance with environmental regulations has brought about a much more efficient production system and reduced initial investment cost per bird.

For more information on the current state of knowledge on the economics of animal waste management, refer to the following white paper summaries:

Both of these summaries were produced by the National Center for Manure and Animal Waste Management funded through a USDA CSREES Fund for Rural America Grant.

The intent of this page is not to catalogue all activities but rather to indicate the types of research activities in the Animal Waste Management theme across the U.S.