Achieving Livestock and Poultry Nutrient Runoff Reductions through Voluntary Farm Assistance Programs

State and Federal governments have approached mitigation of nutrient transport from animal feeding operations with both regulatory and volunteer-based models. The Comprehensive Livestock Environmental Assessment and Nutrient Management Planning (CLEANeast^TM) Project is a 4-year, 27-state voluntary program funded as a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce nutrient transport to surface waters from animal feeding operations. The Project offers no-cost, confidential manure management planning to livestock and poultry farms who volunteer. Tools were created to use with existing State and Federal manure management planning software to not only support large animal feeding operations required to comply with water quality standards but also to encourage small, unregulated operations to implement nutrient reduction measures voluntarily. Statistics on participation and the management practices recommended by field experts provide insight into the viability of volunteer programs, diversity in regionally-based interests, variations in management practices, and benefits to impaired receiving waters.