Manure
Bad
• 4/93 cryptosporidium in Milwaukee.
400,000 ill.
• 7/95 1.5 million gallons of hog manure
spilled into Iowa river. 30-40 miles of river
devastated.
• 6/95 25 million gallons into New River NC
• Source: Innes
Innes
• Manure is stored in lagoons and then
spread on land.
• Lagoon capacity is expensive. The larger
the lagoon relative to number of animals,
the lower chance of a spill when it rains.
• Land disposal requires land. The more
animals in one spot, the more transport is
necessary to do the spreading, the bigger
the incentive to not spread it properly
What to do?
• Can’t observe the spreading.
• Can regulate animal density
• Can regulate lagoon size
The N K problem
• Manure is not balanced in its N and K
content containing too much K. If plants
get enough N, then K rolls off.
• Adding more N is expensive because one
must fertilize twice.
• Under fertilization with N is expensive.
Pigs in Space
• Uses county data and the spatial relation
between counties to account for hog farm
location.
• Closeness to infrastrucure (like slaughter
plants) and other hog farms is positive.
• In the East, people repel hogs, but not in
West.
Conclusion
• Scale economies (or just pure market
power) have caused concentration of
livestock.
• Livestock waste disposal depends on
livestock being spread thin.
• Regulation is difficult since neither EPA nor
the states with production wish to take on
the large hog farms.