The farmers who raise our poultry retain ownership of their litter because it is a resource that has financial value to them. For farmers whose crops need the nutrients in poultry litter, it can offset the costs of chemical fertilizers while improving soil quality. For those who cannot or do not want to use their litter, it is an agricultural commodity that can be sold to generate additional farm income or bartered. As such, the litter from a typical poultry farm is worth several thousand dollars per year to the farmer.

Since poultry houses are enclosed and there is no liquid waste, there is no manure discharge from poultry houses. The small amount of manure deposited outside the house on free-range farms helps to support the vegetation in the pasture area.

Litter, like any other fertilizer, is used by farmers in accordance with nutrient management plans that match fertilizer application to the needs of each crop, minimizing the potential for nutrient run-off. We also require all of our poultry farmers to have a nutrient management plan for the poultry operation. In addition, state regulations, such as the Phosphorus Management Tool (PMT) in Maryland, further regulate the movement and placement of poultry litter and fertilizers.

While poultry farmers are responsible for making sure litter from their farms goes to an approved use, crop farming and poultry production are two separate activities.

• The amount of nutrients applied to crops is regulated by nutrient management plans and other applicable state regulations, and crop farmers apply fertilizer accordingly. Therefore, the presence of poultry operations does not change the amount of nutrients applied to land, but the source of those nutrients may differ.  
• Liter stored on the farm is kept in covered storage buildings to prevent run-off.

Poultry litter on Delmarva and in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

There are areas of Delmarva where farm fields have a surplus of nutrients, and litter cannot – and should not – be applied to those crops. We believe this should not be a burden for the Delmarva farmers who raise our chickens, something we recognized more than a decade and a half ago when we became the first – and still only – poultry company on Delmarva to put capital into large-scale nutrient recycling with the establishment of Perdue AgriRecycle in 2001.

While Perdue AgrRecycled has handled more than 2.3 billion pounds of litter, relocating nutrients to where they are needed, demand for litter from Delmarva poultry farms continued to match or exceed the supply, and in 2016, Perdue AgriRecycle transitioned to a composting operation, with increased capabilities to recycle nutrients from a wide range of poultry production and processing by-products.

Perdue maintains a commitment to assist any of its poultry farmers who cannot use, sell or barter their litter, including the option to use litter in the Perdue AgriRecycle compost operation.

• So far, Perdue spent more than $80 million on Perdue AgriRecycle, recycling more than 69.4million pounds of nitrogen 45.9 million pounds of phosphorus (as of June 2018).

• In addition, Perdue has paid more than $1.2 million into the Maryland Manure Transport Fund since 2006, fully funding our farmers’ participation, and almost $2 million into the Bay Restoration Fund through “flush tax” fees on our Maryland facilities.

• Perdue AgriRecycle continues to look at advancing technologies for nutrient recycling.