Laboratory
Self-Audit |
Animal
Confinement Areas
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Waste Stream Assessment:
Estimate what percentages
of your waste fall into these common categories. Add your own categories
if necessary.
___% Biological and
Veterinary Waste |
___% Animal
Waste |
___% Water and Soil
Quality Issues |
___% Other |
Now
look at where you can reduce waste, reuse materials or recycle -- in the case
of biological or veterinary waste, dispose of properly to avoid serious
health hazards.
Use this checklist to identify possible
problem areas.
Large Animal Waste
Manure - Do You?
- Use properly managed manure as a soil nutrient source.
- Compost manure or incorporate it into soil. Consult your Extension
office or land grant university for application rates and nutrient balance
information.
Develop a safe storage and application program appropriate
for the amount of waste you produced. (Storage options may include: manure
pile, concrete tank/basin/pond, earthen pond or metal tank. Application
options may include: manual application, a manure spreader, tank wagon.)
Carcasses - Do You?
- Consult local regulations for disposal, especially if disease may
be of concern.
- Check to see if carcasses can be sent to your landfill with permission.
- Bury carcasses at least two feet deep. (This may be subject to local
regulations.)
- Keep disposal sites far away from wells and surface water.
Water and Soil Quality Issues
Stocking rate - Do You?
- Maintain a stocking rate appropriate for your range. (Keep the rate
low enough to preserve substrate and prevent accumulation of manure
and waste.)
- Maintain buffer zones between pasture or confinement areas and water
sources (see riparian zone protection below).
Water run-off - Do You?
- Construct your confinement facilities on impermeable soils such as
clays to protect ground water
- Take note of the run-off patterns of your pasture, pens or corral.
- Keep the confinement area away from water sources
- Construct a barrier (like a ditch, grassy swale, berm, curb or interceptor
trench) to divert or slow the run-off and allow plants to absorb nutrients
from manure if runoff threatens a water source.
- Divert water run-off which may flow into or through your pens from
above.
Riparian zone protection - Do You?
- Maintain buffer zones between surface water and confinement areas.
- Fence off streams and construct water gaps or designated stream crossings
for livestock.
- Reinforce stream crossings and water gaps with rock or gravel on banks
to prevent erosion.
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Biological and Veterinary Waste
Consult local
regulations concerning veterinary, biological or infectious waste.
Call your local veterinarian or department of livestock.
Gloves, sleeves and clothing - Do you?
- Dispose of gloves or sleeves with normal waste, UNLESS they have been
exposed to a suspected infectious waste.
- Launder coveralls or clothing appropriately.
Medicines/drugs
- Do You?
- Control inventory as discussed
in General Housekeeping.
- Use all portions for their
intended purpose.
- Dispose of unused or expired
portions with other bio-hazards.
- Consult local agencies for
disposal regulations.
Bio-hazards -
Do You?
- Consult local disposal regulations.
- Heat-treat or steam-sterilize
any container, glove, or waste that may have been exposed to an infectious
waste before disposal.
Sharps - Do You?
- Store used and contaminated
needles, glass and blades in a sealed well-labeled "sharps"
container.
- Make sure your sharps container
cannot spill or leak.
- Consult local agencies for
disposal regulations.
Other
Small animals - Do You?
- Compost rabbit manure. (Mix leaves or plant material in manure pile
under suspended cages; introduce earth worms to pile.) Do not
compost rodent wasate and bedding as some diseases are spread through
rodent droppings.
- Place small or caged animal waste in a landfill. (Check local regulations.)
- Bury or place carcasses in a landfill depending on local regulations.
Fish/aqua-culture - Do You?
- Generally refrain from composting fish and fish scraps. Even though
they can be composted, the high fat (fish oil) may attract scavenging
animals.
- Consult a local water quality specialist on management of waste water.
Proper management depends on the chemicals and additives you have used.
Poultry - Do You?
- Compost poultry waste and litter. It contains high amounts of nitrogen
in the form of urea.
- Bury or landfill carcasses depending on local regulations.
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References:
- Guide to Animal
Waste Management and Water Quality Protection in Montana, 1996, Montana Department
of Environmental Quality.
- Pollution Prevention
in Agricultural Livestock Production, 1996, Cooperative Extension; Biological
and Agricultural Engineering Department, The University of Georgia.
- Montana Farm and Ranch Solid Waste Management Guide, 1995,
Montana State University Extension Service.

The P2 audit for Agricultural and Vocational Educators
was produced by the Peaks to Prairies Pollution Prevention Information
Center, funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
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