Indiana Livestock regulations tightened

Agweb reports that Indiana is tightening regulations on medium sized confined feeding operations.  Soil phosphorous, amount of manure storage, and spreading on snow are issues.  Right now Illinois allows spreading on snow under certain conditions. The march of regulation seems to never take a break.

One of the things the article points out is that even small farmers can be regulated if they have a fish kill or a spill.  In Illinois pretty much all farmers are regulated.  In other words, everyone has to follow the rules.  The question is documentation.  A written manure management plan is supposed to be in place for everyone with over 1000 animal units.  Those with smaller operations need to have a plan and follow the rules, but it does not need to be in writing.  If there is an alleged problem on the farm, regulators can invite themselves onto a producer's property.  Once they are on the property, they can look at anything.

A livestock producer commenting on the above article complained about the cost of implementation.  One of the things I have seen is that farmers do not consider the value of the fertility in their manure.