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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Animal Units." National Research Council. 2003. Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10586.
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E
Animal Units

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) definition of animal unit appears in the regulations that govern National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Appendix B to 40 CFR Part 122 defines animal unit and uses the concept to determine when an animal feeding operation is a concentrated animal feeding operation.

APPENDIX B TO PART 122—CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING A CONCENTRATED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATION (§ 122.23)

An animal feeding operation is a concentrated animal feeding operation for purposes of § 122.23 if either of the following criteria is met.

  1. More than the numbers of animals specified in any of the following categories are confined:

    1. 1,000 slaughter and feeder cattle,

    2. 700 mature dairy cattle (whether milked or dry cows),

    3. 2,500 swine each weighing over 25 kilograms (approximately 55 pounds),

    4. 500 horses,

    5. 10,000 sheep or lambs,

    6. 55,000 turkeys,

    7. 100,000 laying hens or broilers (if the facility has continuous overflow watering),

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Animal Units." National Research Council. 2003. Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10586.
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  1. 30,000 laying hens or broilers (if the facility has a liquid manure system),

  2. 5,000 ducks, or

  3. 1,000 animal units; or

  1. More than the following number and types of animals are confined:

    1. 300 slaughter or feeder cattle,

    2. 200 mature dairy cattle (whether milked or dry cows),

    3. 750 swine each weighing over 25 kilograms (approximately 55 pounds),

    4. 150 horses,

    5. 3,000 sheep or lambs,

    6. 16,500 turkeys,

    7. 30,000 laying hens or broilers (if the facility has continuous overflow watering),

    8. 9,000 laying hens or broilers (if the facility has a liquid manure handling system),

    9. 1,500 ducks, or

    10. 300 animal units;

and either one of the following conditions is met:

pollutants are discharged into navigable waters through a man-made ditch, flushing system or other similar man-made device;

or pollutants are discharged directly into waters of the United States that originate outside of and pass over, across, or through the facility or otherwise come into direct contact with the animals confined in the operation.

Provided, however, that no animal feeding operation is a concentrated animal feeding operation as defined above if such animal feeding operation discharges only in the event of a 25 year, 24-hour storm event.

The term animal unit means a unit of measurement for any animal feeding operation calculated by adding the following numbers:

the number of slaughter and feeder cattle multiplied by 1.0, plus the number of mature dairy cattle multiplied by 1.4, plus the number of swine weighing over 25 kilograms (approximately 55 pounds) multiplied by 0.4, plus the number of sheep multiplied by 0.1, plus the number of horses multiplied by 2.0.

The term man-made means constructed by man and used for the purpose of transporting wastes.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Animal Units." National Research Council. 2003. Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10586.
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

A definition of animal unit from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), appears in the Commodity Credit Corporation Regulations for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), at 7 CFR § 1466.3:

Animal unit means 1,000 pounds of live weight of any given livestock species or any combination of livestock species.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Animal Units." National Research Council. 2003. Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10586.
×
Page 214
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Animal Units." National Research Council. 2003. Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10586.
×
Page 215
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Animal Units." National Research Council. 2003. Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10586.
×
Page 216
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Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs discusses the need for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement a new method for estimating the amount of ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, and other pollutants emitted from livestock and poultry farms, and for determining how these emissions are dispersed in the atmosphere. The committee calls for the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a joint council to coordinate and oversee short - and long-term research to estimate emissions from animal feeding operations accurately and to develop mitigation strategies. Their recommendation was for the joint council to focus its efforts first on those pollutants that pose the greatest risk to the environment and public health.

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