National Center for Manure and Animal Waste Management

Frank Humenik, Director, North Carolina State University
Larry Jacobson, Professor
David Schmidt, Assistant Extension Engineer
Jun Zhu, Assistant Professor, Southern Research and Outreach Center, Waseca, MN
Neil Hansen, Assistant Professor, West Central Research and Outreach Center, Morris, MN
Researchers and extension specialists from 15 other American universities

Funding Source

USDA—Fund for Rural America Grant

Objective

The overall objective of this multi-state (14 states and 16 universities) project is to develop animal waste management practices that are economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable by identifying knowledge and technology gaps in four general areas: research and development, technology evaluation and demonstration, education and training, and social policy activities.

Need or Impact

Manure and waste management is a critical element in the future of animal agriculture. Since this issue includes not only probable changes in production management but also regulatory policies at national, state, and even local levels, the message delivered to producers is often fragmented and confusing. The center has provided some much needed national coordination effort to provide animal producers with easily understandable, accessible information but also has coordinated and facilitated the development of new information through standardization and certification of efforts to evaluate and verify performance of waste management systems, technologies, and components.

Project Status

The project ended in January of 2004 but has been granted a one-year no-cost extension to finish up several items. Some key one-time outcomes of National Center activities include the following:

• White Papers were developed that summarize the current state of the science for 20 manure management issues, and an additional five papers are under development
• The Center coordinated responses to the EPA-proposed CAFO rules and NODA; meetings with members of EPA and USDA (two occasions) to discuss these recommendations
• Based on the research needs identified in the White Papers, 19 projects were supported with center funds.
• The center co-sponsored workshops in the United States, Japan, and Korea, including the American Water Resources Association Specialty Conference and the US-EPA Sustainable Land Application Conference