Phosphorus Index in Animal Waste Management

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.

Phosphorus Index

The Phosphorus Index is a simple field-based planning tool to assess the risk of phosphorus (P) movement from agriculture to water. Many versions of the P index exist and are in varying stages of evolution due to differing regional and geographic conditions. Much research through CSREES and the Land Grant System is being done to identify P sensitive watersheds, expand and improve on P indices, and to develop best management practices (BMPs) to reduce agricultural P losses to water.

A formalized group of scientists, SERA-17 (Southern Extension Research Activity with many members associated with Land-Grant Universities), was organized through the auspices of the Southern CSREES Region. This group discusses the research and management needs related to agricultural P and water quality.

Various State-Specific P Indices

Arkansas
Delaware
Maryland
New York
Pennsylvania
Vermont
Virginia
USDA-ARS has a Summary of Phosphorus Indices which lists what university or agency to contact for more information.
Many states have developed software programs to help in calculating a P index.
Nebraska
Maryland
Wisconsin
Missouri
Minnesota

Regional Comparisons of P Indices

Development of Regionally-Consistent Phosphorus Source Coefficients for Use in Phosphorus Index Evaluations in the Mid-Atlantic Region (Coale 2005)
Phosphorus Indexes in Four Midwestern States: A Literature Review and Comparison (Benning 2005)
Customizing and Validating the P Index in Whole Farm Plans for Soils of the Northeast (Geohring 2003)
P-Indices: A Southern Comparison (Osmond 2006)

More discussion of animal waste management BMPs can be found on the Treatment, Storage and Collection of Manure page.

For more information on the current state of knowledge on the P Index, refer to the Phosphorus Index: Background and Status White Paper Summary 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.