[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 18 (Friday, January 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5202-5203]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01506]



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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Agricultural Research Service


Notice of Intent To Seek Approval To Collect Information

AGENCY: Agricultural Research Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, this notice 
announces the Agricultural Research Service's intent to conduct focus 
groups to understand insights and experiences of manureshed managers.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by March 26, 2024 to be 
assured of consideration.
    Comments: You may submit comments by emailing Sarah Beebout at 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  Sheri Spiegal at 415-264-2906, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Focus Groups to Understand Insights and Experiences of 
Manureshed Managers.
    OMB Number: 0518-XXXX.
    Expiration Date: Three years from approval date.
    Type of Request: Approval for focus groups.
    Abstract: This is a request, made by ARS National Program Leader 
and ARS Rangeland Management Specialist, that the OMB approve, under 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, a 1-year generic clearance for the 
ARS to conduct focus groups to understand the perspectives and 
experiences of agricultural and natural resource professionals who 
facilitate collaborative ``manureshed'' management. A manureshed is the 
land geographically and economically connected to confined animal 
feeding operations where manure from the operations can be recycled to 
meet social, economic, and environmental goals. The USDA-ARS Manureshed 
Working Group will use focus group results to design research and 
extension activities that address the knowledge gaps and opportunities 
illuminated by practitioners on the ground.

Description of Focus Groups

    Five focus groups will be held in three states for a total of 15 
sessions. At each focus group meeting, facilitators will follow a 
predetermined research instrument consisting of a preamble, a 
presentation of materials, and 13 interactive questions. Each focus 
group meeting is expected to last up to 2 hours and comprise 10 or 
fewer participants not counting facilitators.

Estimate of Burden

    Responding to an invitation for a focus group meeting is estimated 
to take 3 minutes. If the respondent agrees to attend, the participant 
will spend 120 minutes (2 hours) at the meeting.
    Respondents: Animal farmers, crop farmers, manure professionals, 
natural resource management professionals, and other stakeholders who 
each have a key role in facilitating manureshed management in Colorado, 
Minnesota, and New Mexico.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 300.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 315 hours.

Comments

    Manure management poses grand challenges for modern agriculture. 
While surplus manure nutrients exist in some places, great deficits 
persist in others. This uneven distribution can harm ecosystems, social 
systems, and producers' bottom lines. Recycling manure nutrients from 
areas of surplus to agricultural fields in need is a traditional 
approach that has become increasingly difficult as agriculture has 
become specialized, with crops and animals increasingly grown on 
separate farms, and concentrated, with specialized crop and animal 
farms consolidating in certain areas of the U.S. landscape. Manuresheds 
bridge the gaps between otherwise disparate components of modern 
agriculture.
    The USDA-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Manureshed 
Working Group was founded in 2018 to develop viable strategies for 
cooperative manure management. The group comprises federal and 
university researchers at ten sites across the United States and Canada 
in the USDA-ARS Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network, along with 
members from producer groups, federal action agencies, cooperative 
extension, private manure management entities, and animal industry 
groups. The Manureshed Working Group has begun to define the issues and 
describe potential solutions using its own research-based and 
extension-based knowledge with geospatial mapping and modeling.
    Despite the new understanding developed by the working group, much 
remains unknown about how manuresheds can be managed for desirable 
outcomes for all stakeholders involved. The variability of animal 
manures, the complexity of agricultural systems, the social separation 
of different types of farmers, and persistent technological challenges 
create social, economic, and technological barriers to manureshed 
management in the United States--some of which are barely understood. 
The next critical step for manureshed researchers is to engage directly 
with people on the ground who recycle manure, to incorporate their 
insights into targeted, solutions-oriented research and extension.
    At each focus group, facilitators will first present materials and 
then ask 13 interactive questions related to the materials:
    Facilitators present manureshed maps and diagrams on PowerPoint 
projector and in handouts:
    1. Map of manureshed originating from animal farms in focal manure 
``source'' county. Depending on focus group location, map will 
represent Chavez County, New Mexico; Weld County, Colorado; or Morrison 
County, Minnesota.
    2. Map of trans-regional manureshed originating from the region 
containing the focal source county.
    3. Conceptual diagram of manureshed management: components and 
actors.
    Facilitators ask interactive focus group questions:
    1. What is your role in the manureshed system? How long have you 
been in this role? [Display ``Conceptual Diagram of Manureshed 
Management'']
    2. What is the spatial scale of the manureshed that you operate in?
    3. Manure starts with feed, grown locally or imported. Please tell 
me about the feed ration in your area. Of the total feed supplied, what 
approximate percent is forages? Grains? Pasture usage? Where does 
animal feed in your manureshed come from originally?
    4. What factors drive the decision-making of the suppliers and 
recipients about where manure is redistributed? [Prompt: Examples 
include soil type, land ownership, trucking infrastructure, social 
networks, friendship, cropping, water availability for crop or range, 
diesel price, weather, urban encroachment, contaminants, local 
technologies for manure transformation and transport, and availability 
of information.]
    5. What is a ``point of pride'' or best aspect of manure/nutrient 
management in your manureshed? What is the most worrisome aspect of 
manure/nutrient management in your manureshed?
    6. In general, what factors or systems make it easy to redistribute 
manure from places of surplus to agricultural fields in need? What are 
the barriers?

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    7. In general, what is the percentage of manure that stays on 
animal farms vs. manure exported to other properties? How far does 
manure generally travel off the farm? How is it transported? Does the 
distribution shown in the ``Map of Manureshed Originating from Animal 
Farms'' reflect what you see in your area?
    8. Who are the main suppliers and recipients of transported manure? 
How do the suppliers and recipients know each other? Is a broker or 
other intermediary involved in manure exchange? Have you ever heard 
about the need to supply or receive more manure without a recipient or 
supplier?
    9. Is the market value of manure correct? What creates the value, 
recognizing this could be a negative price for situations where there 
is a cost for manure to be removed? Are there ways to improve/create 
functional manure markets? Does anyone have plans to shift manure 
management to participate in carbon markets?
    10. What are the main types of manure treatment and storage 
technologies available? Are there technical innovations (e.g., solid 
separators, chemical amendments, vermiculture, biochar, digesters) that 
anyone is considering? What research is needed on these? Is financing 
available?
    11. Tell me about the role of regulations. Which seem reasonable or 
appropriate for maintaining environmental health and social wellbeing 
in your manureshed? Are there any changes you would make to these 
regulations to improve efficiency?
    12. What are your pie-in-the-sky nutrient recycling dreams? What 
would your ideal form of manure nutrient recycling look like if no 
barriers existed? Without barriers, what spatial scale would you 
operate at? For instance, would the vision in the ``Map of Trans-
Regional Manuresheds'' come into play? [Prompt: Would that dream entail 
local manure recycling or commercialization of standardized manure 
nutrient products or something else entirely?]
    13. What type of information is necessary for collaborative 
manureshed management to be effective/possible? If you want information 
on nutrient management, who do you turn to?
    The USDA-ARS Manureshed Working Group will use focus group results 
to design research that addresses the knowledge gaps and opportunities 
illuminated by practitioners on the ground. For example, if focus 
groups in a state reveal that land use change is a major hindrance to 
successful manureshed management, subsequent research and extension in 
that state will focus on that issue. If focus groups reveal that a lack 
of social relationships between animal farmers with surplus manure and 
crop farmers who could use it, the ensuing research and extension would 
focus thusly. This honing of research, designed to support 
practitioners, is impossible without learning from practitioners 
directly. Focus group results will also direct extension activities in 
each state, structuring future discussions among the otherwise-
disparate focus group populations with an eye toward advancing 
collaborative management opportunities. This proposed work is a form of 
``participatory action research'' in which researchers and stakeholders 
work together to examine an issue and change it for more desired 
outcomes.

Jeffrey Silverstein,
Acting Associate Administrator, ARS.
[FR Doc. 2024-01506 Filed 1-25-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-03-P