From Your Side of the Fence – Animal Unit Rules

05-18-2018 in Livestock

Combination livestock farms can be challenging if a farmer is thinking of expanding. The most common example of a combination livestock farm are cattle and hogs on the same farm site. Under state law, for the purpose of new construction permitting, all animal units in the same production practice need to be counted together.

What this means is if you have a 2,400 head confinement hog barn and you are considering building a 600 head cattle confinement barn, you would need to count the animal units from both confinements together to know what separation distances and permit requirements would need to be met for the proposed cattle confinement.

2,400 head of hogs are 960 animal units and 600 head of cattle are 600 animal units. The combined animal units are 1,560 animal units. The proposed cattle confinement would need to meet the separation distances and permitting requirements for a confinement feeding operation between 1,000 and less than 3,000 animal units.

If a farmer needs assistance in better understanding DNR regulations and how these regulations apply to their individual farm, they can request a free farm visit by contact the Coalition at 800-932-2436 or visiting our website www.supportfarmers.com.

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