Poultry litter is a combination of poultry manure and bedding material, such as wood shavings, rice hulls or peanut hulls. Litter is typically used as an organic fertilizer on crops and vegetation because it contains many rich nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorous, which are essential to productive soil. These nutrients enable Oklahoma farms and ranches to produce healthy crops.

In excess, however, nutrients from many types of sources can affect the soil, groundwater and nearby surface water. For example, phosphorus compounds that run off into streams can fuel algae growth that depletes oxygen from the water, leading to fish kills.

This is the kind of situation that the Poultry Community Council and the poultry farmers are working hard to prevent. Our region’s farmers have taken proactive measures by adopting Nutrient Management Plans to manage the storage and utilization of litter.

Nutrient Management Plans include every phase of poultry-litter handling and management, including collection, storage, treatment, transfer, and utilization (sale or application to land as fertilizer).

Stored poultry litter and compost residue materials are sampled and tested to determine how much nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium
they contain. The litter and compost nutrient information help determine fertilizer needs, along with litter application rates for a pasture or crop.

PROPOSING A MORE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

Several of the poultry companies proposed a comprehensive plan to regulate and monitor nutrients in the Oklahoma Scenic Watersheds. It is our hope that with the endorsement of the State of Oklahoma, we can move forward with these efforts. Provisions of the plan include:

» Development of a science-based joint nutrient index relating to standards for land application.
» Continued reduction of poultry litter application on farmland by transporting more of it outside the watershed to other areas in need of such
   organic fertilizer.
» Funding for supplemental environmental projects, including farmer education, transportation matching grants, and research and development
   into alternative uses of poultry litter.
» Creation of and funding for a non-profit entity to acquire and maintain conservation easements for buffers against nutrient runoff.
» Documentation of progress in litter management by means of annual reports to Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Several of these components are being implemented in the Illinois River watershed pursuant to a cooperative agreement between several poultry industry members and the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission.

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