Animal Farms

Animal farms are places where animals (swine, beef and dairy cattle, calves, sheep, lambs, horses, chickens, turkeys, or ducks) are raised for pleasure, food, or fiber. When farmers keep the animals together in one area for feeding and maintenance rather than letting them graze on pasture, it is considered an animal feeding operation. The manure animals produce must be properly managed by the farmers raising the animals.

Whether the Indiana Department of Environmental Management regulates an animal feeding operation is dependent on the number of animals the farmer plans on housing. If there is enough of one type of a regulated animal on a farm in Indiana, and the animals are confined for at least 45 days a year, it is considered to be a confined feeding operation (CFO) and is regulated under certain Indiana laws and rules. IDEM educates farmers on the requirements of Indiana’s Confined Feeding Program and the laws and rules that govern it. The agency helps Indiana farmers to be fully prepared to construct and operate their farms in a manner that protects Hoosiers and our environment.