Environmental Stewardship - Water Quality
Pork producers are good stewards of the environment and strive to manage their farms in ways that protect the environment. They are committed to operating their farms in a responsible manner with respect and care for precious surface and ground water resources.
The nutrients in swine manure, principally nitrogen and phosphorous, are naturally occurring compounds that result from various biological processes besides animal agriculture. Nitrogen and phosphorous can result from the decomposition of organic material such as leaves, plants and wildlife droppings. These nutrients are also present in other sources that contribute to the environment such as the waste matter from municipal and industrial sewage plants and urban runoff primarily from lawns and pet waste.
Pork producers carefully plan and design manure management systems to protect natural resources including water. Manure storage structures can be constructed of concrete metal or earthen materials. If earthen structures are used they are generally lined with compacted clay or synthetic materials to ensure protection of ground water. Earthen structures used at pork production operations are very similar to the earthen structures used at many municipal sewage plants with one exception – pork production operations do not discharge their waste into surface water sources like most municipal systems do.
When swine manure is applied to the land as fertilizer, most pork producers follow nutrient management plans that carefully consider the amount of nutrients already available in the soil, the nutrients that will be needed by the farm crops to be raised and the nutrients in the manure. Manure is applied only as needed to meet the nutrient requirements of the crops and in ways that reduce the potential for runoff of manure into bodies of water.
The 2004 Water Quality Assessment Database compiled by state environmental regulatory agencies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that lists sources of surface water impairments of the nations rivers, streams and lakes reflects that livestock agriculture ranks low as a potential source of impairment. In Iowa, the state raising the greatest number of hogs, livestock production is listed last on the list of probable sources of water impairments for streams and rivers and not a source of impairment for lakes, ponds or reservoirs.
Hog farmers take their responsibility to be good environmental stewards very seriously and work hard each day to manage their farms in ways that protect the precious water resources we all rely upon.
