Author: Mark Risse, University of Georgia
Regular monitoring of structures, equipment, and other critical control points and thorough record keeping are essential on all animal feeding operations. It is your best insurance against accidental discharges and, in the event of a compliance inspection, documents that you are doing things correctly. In addition, to comply with regulations, your permit may require that you maintain some records. Keeping accurate records, along with implementing proper best management practices (BMPs) on your operation, is the primary way you prove to state water quality agencies and to the general public that your manure management system is not causing an environmental impact. Finally, there is a strong financial incentive to keep records to manage the economic return from nutrients in a cropping system.
Assistance with record keeping can be obtained from Certified Crop Advisors and other technical specialists, the local Cooperative Extension Service, the NRCS, and the local SWCD.
Record keeping is a major component of site inspections that state water quality agencies or local SWCDs conduct. Often a complaint leading to an inspection can easily be resolved if proper records are available. Larger operations with NPDES permits are required to keep records, but all operations should consider keeping them for their own benefit. Required records should be maintained for at least five years or as long as they are useful. For items such as soil and manure testing, be sure to include the procedures used for sampling and analysis of each test.
It is important to remember that a nutrient management plan (NMP) is just a plan of what you intend to do. Without records that indicate what you actually did, the NMP is of little use in documenting compliance on the farm.
Some records that all farms should consider keeping include the following:
• Weather records including daily rainfall records. Where odor is an issue, some producers have also found it useful to keep wind speed and direction data.
• For all lagoons or manure storages, you should record weekly lagoon level (freeboard) records as well as inspection and maintenance records of the structure.
• Water quality monitoring or environmental assessments are proactive measures that producers should use to track their environmental performance. Usually, this type of monitoring is not required but could be very helpful. If water quality monitoring is required as part of your permit, the permit will dictate the frequency and types of ground and surface water monitoring you should conduct.
• Operators should maintain records on all nutrient applications including manure, commercial fertilizer, or waste materials, such as municipal biosolids or industrial residuals. These records should include the analytical results, application rates, and soil tests for each application site. The record-keeping forms or software can often be found through your local Cooperative Extension office.
• It is important that operators obtain permission to land apply manure on land that is rented from or owned by another person. A legal manure application agreement could be your only protection in the event of a spill or environmental investigation. It also may be required as part of an NMP on operations that are land limited.
• Records should also be kept on all manure transported off the operation. When transporting manure off-site or selling manure, the records should include the amount sold or given away, the recipient, the manure nutrient content and the intended use. It is also advisable to give the recipient a copy of the manure analysis and to provide information about appropriate utilization.
