The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), administers national soil and water conservation programs with the cooperation of landowners and operators in local soil conservation districts and other government agencies. It has traditionally provided technical and financial assistance to the U.S. agricultural community to help individuals plan, design, and implement waste management systems and other conservation projects. In addition, NRCS offers education, research, and database development.
The NRCS focuses on nonpoint source pollution and its effects on soil, water, air, plants, animals, and people. Potential agricultural contaminants include pesticide residues, nutrients, salts, trace minerals, and sediment. To help the agricultural community treat or prevent water quality problems, NRCS promotes economically feasible and practical measures for treating or preventing water quality problems. These include the environmentally safe management of dead birds, litter, and manure; the development of nutrient management plans; and the construction of litter storage facilities.
NRCS also encourages voluntary approaches to solving resource problems as it works to insure a continuing exchange of information.
Services Available to Poultry Growers
Through its conservation practices, the NRCS provides planning, design, and construction assistance on waste treatment lagoons, manure and litter dry-stacking facilities, and poultry mortality facilities, and management and nutrient management plans based on soils, crops, and equipment availability. It also serves as technical representative for USDA cost-share programs to implement nutrient and poultry mortality management systems and, in some cases, provides financial as well as technical assistance in special project areas. The NRCS works closely with state regulatory agencies in waste management.
Contacts
USDA NRCS HEADQUARTERS
Attn: Conservation Communications Staff
P.O. Box 2890
Washington, DC 20013
Tel: 202-720-3210
Fax: 202-720-1564
Web: www.nrcs.usda.gov