Environment

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) now offers the state’s livestock producers an opportunity to use an online database to double-check when annual updates and four-year manure management plans are due. The DNR Animal Feeding Operations online database offers many options as part of a facility search page. The more information that is input into the database, the more specific the search will be. Knowing the facility identification number or specific name of the operation helps producers conduct a focused search for information....More

Researchers at the University of Illinois (U of I) are developing an educational and research facility that will demonstrate the process of converting swine manure and algae into crude oil....More

Researchers throughout the Midwest continue to search for definitive causes and solutions to the challenge of dangerous and potentially explosive foaming manure pits under swine buildings. Preliminary research from the University of Minnesota indicates pit foam may be reduced by adding monensin sodium, sold by Elanco as Rumensin 90, directly to the manure pit....More

  The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has criticized congressional legislation introduced Monday that would prescribe cage sizes for egg-laying hens, saying it would create a “dangerous precedent” in allowing the federal government to regulate on-farm production practices, including animal housing....More

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) on Thursday joined nearly 90 agricultural organizations in filing two sets of comments with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) Reporting Rule....More