Feedlot Environmental Requirements
Environmental requirements can influence where a feedlot is located, how it is laid out, how water and manure are managed and, ultimately, whether a proposed development can gain approval.
For a covered feedlot, these considerations also need to account for the effect of the roof. Keeping rainfall off the covered pen area changes how water moves through the site and creates clean roof water that needs to be captured, reused or appropriately discharged.
The earlier these requirements are understood, the easier it is to develop the feedlot, civil works and covered structure together.
What Environmental Issues Need to Be Considered?
The National Guidelines for Beef Cattle Feedlots in Australia identify a broad range of environmental considerations when selecting and developing a feedlot site.
Depending on the project, these can include:
- Surface water and groundwater
- Flood risk
- Site topography and drainage
- Soil type and permeability
- Odour and dust
- Separation from neighbouring residences and other sensitive receptors
- Manure storage and utilisation
- Effluent collection, storage and reuse
- Clean and contaminated water separation
- Carcase management
- Traffic and access
- Native vegetation and ecological constraints
- Cultural heritage
- Noise
- Future expansion
These aren’t issues to check once the building has been designed. They can influence the location, orientation and layout of the development from the beginning.
MLA’s Feedlot Design Manual provides detailed technical guidance across site selection, investigations, drainage, holding ponds, manure management and feedlot design.
What Does a Suitable Feedlot Site Look Like?
There isn’t one set of conditions that makes a site suitable, but there are characteristics that can make feedlot development and environmental management more straightforward.
An early site assessment should look for:
Adequate separation from sensitive receptors
Distance from neighbouring houses, towns and other sensitive land uses can influence odour and amenity risk.
Suitable topography
The site needs to support effective drainage without creating excessive earthworks or uncontrolled runoff.
Manageable flood risk
The National Guidelines generally recommend locating feedlot facilities above the 1-in-100-year Average Recurrence Interval flood level.
Suitable soils and groundwater conditions
Soil characteristics influence earthworks, permeability, controlled drainage areas and the suitability of land for effluent and manure utilisation.
Reliable water supply
The operation needs sufficient water for cattle and feedlot activities, including during periods of peak summer demand.
Space for environmental infrastructure
The site may need room for sedimentation systems, holding ponds, manure storage or composting, clean-water diversion and areas suitable for nutrient reuse.
Suitable access
Cattle, feed, machinery and other heavy vehicle movements need to be considered without creating unnecessary impacts on surrounding roads or neighbours.
A site that performs well across these areas can give the project team more flexibility when developing the feedlot layout.
How Far Should a Feedlot Be From Neighbours?
There isn’t one national minimum separation distance that applies to every feedlot.
Required separation distances can depend on feedlot capacity, local planning controls, topography, prevailing winds, surrounding land uses and the potential for odour, dust and noise impacts.
As an example of why location matters, NSW planning provisions use distances including 100 metres from a natural waterbody and 500 metres from an unrelated dwelling in determining planning requirements for certain intensive livestock developments.
These figures should not be interpreted as universal design setbacks. A larger separation distance may be required depending on the project, jurisdiction and environmental assessment.
The National Guidelines also use a more detailed methodology for assessing separation distances, taking into account factors such as feedlot size, design and management, terrain, vegetation and the nature of the sensitive receptor.
For a proposed development, separation distances should therefore be assessed by the appropriate feedlot planning or environmental specialist rather than applying a generic setback.
Water Is One of the Biggest Environmental Considerations
Feedlots need to manage water differently depending on where it comes from and what it has contacted.
A useful starting point is to separate water into two categories:
Clean Water
Water that has not come into contact with cattle, manure or contaminated feedlot surfaces should, where practical, be kept outside the controlled drainage area.
This can include runoff from surrounding land and, in a covered feedlot, water collected from the roof.
Contaminated Runoff
Rainfall that falls onto feedlot pens, manure handling areas and other contaminated surfaces needs to be collected and managed within the feedlot’s controlled drainage system.
That can involve:
- Catch drains
- Sedimentation systems
- Holding ponds
- Effluent storage
- Land application or reuse systems
Keeping clean and contaminated water separate can reduce the volume of water requiring treatment and storage.
Covered housing changes this balance because rainfall that would previously have landed on a pen can instead become clean roof water.
Depending on local rainfall, roof area and storage capacity, MLA research indicates harvested roof water from covered housing may potentially provide up to around 30% of stock-water requirements in some situations.
Our Feedlot Drainage & Effluent Management guide looks at this relationship in more detail.
What Reports and Investigations Might Be Required?
The exact documentation depends on the state, council, feedlot capacity, existing approvals and environmental characteristics of the site.
For a new feedlot or significant expansion, the project team may need some combination of:
- Site survey
- Geotechnical investigation
- Planning assessment
- Statement of Environmental Effects or Environmental Impact Statement, where applicable
- Environmental assessment
- Odour assessment
- Noise assessment
- Traffic assessment
- Flood assessment
- Stormwater and drainage design
- Effluent-management plan
- Manure and nutrient-management plan
- Soil and groundwater assessment
- Ecological assessment
- Cultural heritage assessment
- Civil engineering drawings
- Structural engineering documentation
Not every project will require every report.
One of the first jobs of the planning and environmental team should be identifying which investigations are actually required for your project, so unnecessary studies aren’t commissioned and critical work isn’t discovered late.
Our Feedlot Approvals guide explains the broader approval pathway.
Who Should Be Involved?
The consultant team will vary with the project, but a covered feedlot development may involve several disciplines.
Feedlot Planner
A specialist feedlot planner can help coordinate the overall feedlot layout, operational requirements and the relationship between pens, roads, drainage and supporting infrastructure.
Town Planner
The town planner can establish the applicable planning controls, approval pathway and documentation required by the relevant council or authority.
Environmental Consultant
The environmental consultant assesses issues such as odour, water, waste, neighbouring receptors and environmental impacts, and may coordinate supporting environmental documentation.
Civil Engineer
The civil engineer typically develops earthworks, site levels, roads, drainage and stormwater infrastructure.
Surveyor
A site survey establishes levels, boundaries and existing features needed for planning, civil design and building coordination.
Geotechnical Engineer
Geotechnical investigations provide information about ground conditions needed for earthworks, pavement and structural foundation design.
Other Specialists
Depending on the site, specialists in hydrology, traffic, ecology, noise, bushfire or cultural heritage may also be required.
TechSpan
TechSpan works with the producer and these specialists to develop the covered feedlot structure.
Our role can include concept development, building orientation and configuration, clear spans, column locations, roof form, ventilation considerations, structural engineering, detailing, manufacture and construction.
Getting the structural team involved early allows the building to develop alongside the civil and environmental design rather than attempting to fit a predetermined structure onto the site later.
What Are the Environmental Approval Thresholds?
Requirements vary significantly between Australian states, so the following should be treated as examples rather than a complete approvals guide.
New South Wales
In NSW, cattle feedlots accommodating more than 1,000 head are designated development and require an Environmental Impact Statement as part of the development application.
Feedlots above 1,000 head are also scheduled activities under NSW environmental legislation and require an Environment Protection Licence.
Smaller developments can still require development consent or environmental assessment depending on capacity, location and local planning controls.
Queensland
In Queensland, intensive cattle feedlotting involving more than 150 standard cattle units (SCU) is an Environmentally Relevant Activity.
Feedlots above this threshold require an Environmental Authority and relevant development approval.
Requirements can increase with the scale and environmental risk of the development.
Because legislation and planning requirements change, always confirm the current requirements with the relevant state authority, council and suitably qualified planning or environmental consultant.
How Long Should Environmental Planning Take?
There isn’t a reliable universal approval timeframe for a feedlot project.
A straightforward modification to an existing approved facility can follow a very different pathway to a greenfield development requiring multiple environmental studies and an Environmental Impact Statement.
Rather than allowing a fixed number of weeks, the project programme should account for:
- Initial planning and site review
- Consultant engagement
- Survey and site investigations
- Seasonal environmental studies, where required
- Preparation of technical reports
- Development application preparation
- Authority assessment
- Requests for additional information
- Public exhibition, where required
- Approval conditions
- Detailed design and certification
Some investigations can begin concurrently, while others depend on earlier information being completed.
For projects targeting a particular construction window, start the planning and environmental review before committing to detailed structural design or a construction date.
Your town planner or environmental consultant should be asked to prepare an indicative approvals programme for the specific project.
Environmental Checklist Before Concept Design
Before progressing too far into building design, work through the following questions:
- What is the existing and proposed feedlot capacity?
- Is this a new feedlot, expansion or cover over existing pens?
- What approvals already exist for the site?
- Are there conditions on those approvals that affect the proposed works?
- Where are the nearest unrelated residences and sensitive receptors?
- Are there natural watercourses or waterbodies nearby?
- Is any part of the site affected by flooding?
- What are the site’s existing drainage patterns?
- How is contaminated runoff currently collected?
- Where will clean roof water be directed?
- Is there sufficient holding and sedimentation capacity?
- How is manure currently stored and utilised?
- Is there sufficient land for effluent and nutrient reuse?
- Have soil and groundwater conditions been investigated?
- What additional reports does the approval authority require?
- Which consultants need to be engaged?
- Does the proposed layout allow for future expansion?
If several of these questions can’t yet be answered, that’s a useful indication of where the next stage of project investigation needs to focus.
Where Does Covered Housing Change the Environmental Picture?
Adding a roof doesn’t remove the need for environmental management. It changes parts of the system.
A covered pen can reduce rainfall reaching the pen surface, which may result in:
- Drier manure
- Less contaminated runoff from the covered area
- Reduced sediment and wet solids entering the drainage system
- Opportunities to harvest clean roof water
- Different bedding and manure-management requirements
At the same time, the project needs to account for the volume of clean water coming off a large roof.
For example, 1 mm of rainfall falling on 1 m² of roof produces approximately 1 litre of water before losses.
That means a 10,000 m² roof receiving a 25 mm rainfall event produces around 250,000 litres, or 250 kL, of roof water.
That water needs somewhere to go.
Roof catchment, gutters, downpipes, tanks, drains and discharge points therefore need to be coordinated with the civil and environmental design from the beginning.
Where TechSpan Fits
TechSpan doesn’t replace the feedlot planner, environmental consultant or civil engineer.
Our role is to make sure the covered structure is developed with their requirements in mind.
During Concept, we work with the producer and project team to understand the site, feedlot layout, environmental constraints and what the building needs to achieve.
During Configure, those requirements are developed into the structural solution, including dimensions, spans, column locations, roof configuration, ventilation, engineering requirements, water-management interfaces and future expansion.
During Construct, TechSpan carries the structural package through detailing, manufacture and construction.
This is our 3C Advantage: Concept. Configure. Construct.
Bringing these disciplines together early gives the project team a better opportunity to resolve environmental, operational and structural requirements before construction begins.
Planning a Covered Feedlot?
If you’re considering covered housing, start by understanding the existing site and environmental system before deciding what the building should look like.
Bring us your existing layout, proposed capacity, site information and what you’re trying to achieve. We can work alongside your feedlot, civil, environmental and planning specialists to develop the covered structure as part of the wider project.