Estimating the Economic Potential for Off-Farm Manure Processing
Noel Gollehon
Lee Christensen
Marc Ribaudo
Marcel Aillery
Jean Agapoff
Vince Breneman
Key Words:
manure management, confined animals, regional optimization, Chesapeake Bay, industrial
manure use
Abstract:
A Chesapeake Bay Watershed manure management model estimates the minimal regional cost of
land applying manure at $110 to $130 million, depending on crop producers’ willingness to
accept manure and the nutrient standard enforced. Annualized capital costs of existing industrial
plants indicate that off-farm options should be considered.
Paper presented at 2002 American Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting, Long
Beach, CA, August, 2002
Noel Gollehon, Lee Christensen, Marc Ribaudo, and Marcel Aillery are agricultural economists
and Jean Agapoff is an Economic Information Specialist in the Resource Economics Division,
Economic Research Service, USDA. Vince Breneman is Senior GIS Analyst, Information
Services Division, Economic Research Service, USDA. E-mail: gollehon@ers.usda.gov, Postal
address: Noel Gollehon, ERS-PMT, Rm.S-4047, 1800 M Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-
5831. The views expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily represent policies or views of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
This paper is based on research conducted in the course of government employment and is
therefore in the public domain. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-
commercial purposes by any means, but authors would appreciate proper citation
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Estimating the Economic Potential for Off-Farm Manure Processing
Public attention has focused increasingly on the concentration of livestock waste and
resulting potential impacts on water quality, aquatic resources, and public health. In 1999, the
Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture issued joint guidelines for
managing of livestock waste from confined animal feeding opera