Indiana livestock producers with 300 or more dairy or beef
cattle or 600 or more swine in confinement will face tightened
manure regulations this summer. Effective July 1, herds larger
than these trigger levels will be required to have 180 days of
manure storage, up from the current 120-day limit. In addition,
no manure can be spread from these operations on snow-covered or
frozen ground, according to Tamilee Nennich, a Purdue University
Extension specialist. Indiana will also reduce the phosphorus
limit from 400 parts per million (ppm) to 200 ppm. The new limit
will be phased in over a seven-year period. The key point in
this new standard is that if soils contain more than these
limits, livestock producers will not be able to spread manure on
these fields, Nennich says. This will likely require producers
to haul manure farther when fields exceed these levels. Smaller
livestock operations could also come under these regulations if
they have a pollution discharge to waters of the state, says
Todd Janzen, an at