Manure Applications and Nutrient Standards

Because of environmental concerns, many states are regulating animal manure applications to crops. A conceptual model is presented to describe manure demand for crop nutrient application under alternative regulatory standards. Demand relationships are incorporated into a spatial equilibrium model to estimate welfare costs of phosphorus and nitrogen regulatory standards for manure applications. Model estimates for Virginia indicate that regulatory standards for manure application achieve large reductions in excess nitrogen and phosphorus and result in 5–15% welfare losses excluding nonmarket environmental valuation.