Compliance with GHG Reporting Regs Made Easy by Livestock Associations

By Terri Queck-Matzie

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued its final ruling requiring livestock operations that emit 25,000 tons of more of greenhouse gasses (GHG) per year from their manure management systems to report those emissions as part of a mandatory GHG registry. Greenhouse gasses include methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association estimates this will affect beef cattle operations with 29,300 or more head of cattle, or around 150-180 cattle operations nationwide.

The first report will be due in March 2011 and will cover 2010. That means operators need to start collecting data now.

In an effort to decrease what the industry has termed “a significant financial and administrative burden on cattle feeders” cattlemen’s associations in the major cattle feeding states and the NCBA have worked to develop a standardized form that will simplify compiling and collecting data.
“This is something we have to do,” says Allie Devine of the Kansas Livestock Association. “It’s here. It’s happening. We have no choice. But it doesn’t have to be complicated and burdensome.”

Devine says the report form will be a user-friendly Excel worksheet designed to meet regulatory requirements. Producer will simply have to plug numbers into the worksheet and submit it when required. “The regs are very specific,” says Devine. “There isn’t really any grey area here.”
Data is collected monthly (beginning with January 2010) and submitted annually. There is no cost to file the report. Developers are hoping the standardized form will avoid making the reporting a time consuming process.

The livestock associations are in the process of educating producers on the new regulations and how to use the report form. The form should be available soon and educational programs like webinars are planned. Further information can be found on the associations’ websites.
Devine stresses the reporting is mandatory. “It’s critical folks take this seriously and follow these regulations,” she says. “So we’re trying to make it as simple as possible.”

The NCBA, along with state and regional beef producing organizations attempted to fight the EPA ruling, citing beef’s relatively small contribution to the greenhouse gas problem. In 2006, the EPA estimated emissions from the entire agriculture sector represented only 6.4 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, and emissions from beef cattle manure management activities were estimated at only 0.127 percent of total GHG emissions in 2007.

In formal written arguments against the action, the Texas Cattle Feeders Association stated, “Levels of GHG emissions from agriculture are largely dependent on forces beyond the control of any government entity, but especially beyond the control of a federal entity. These forces include Mother Nature, and variations in the digestive tracts of ruminant animals.”

But despite industry objections, the EPA ruling is now in effect, and Devine stresses it is important for producers, and the industry, to move forward.

“The current reporting is not the problem. This is just another report,” says Devine. “The real problems come after they read the reports and make new regulations.”