NRCS Practice Standard: Roofs and Covers (367)

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NRCS Practice Standard: Roofs and Covers (367)

About the Company:

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s primary private lands conservation agency. The NRCS helps producers protect and conserve natural resources on private lands through voluntary conservation programs. Through Practice Standards and technical guides, the NRCS provides information about the conservation, energy resources, and provides personalized advice to individual producers.

The NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides technical and financial assistance to producers as they implement NRCS Conservation Practice Standards.

Technical guides used in each field office are localized so that they apply specifically to the geographic area for which they are prepared. Thus, while national guidelines have been provided as a framework for each standard, each state has adopted and modified the conservation practice standards to suit their individual landscape.

To find a local NRCS Service center click here.

To find the specific guideline for each state click here.

About the Solution:

Roofs and Covers (367)

A Roofs and Covers system consists of a rigid, semirigid, or flexible manufactured membrane, composite material, or roof structure placed over a waste management facility or an agrichemical handling facility.

Practice Information

The Roofs and Covers practice is a component of an agricultural waste management system. Roofs and covers are installed to prevent the escape of gasses from waste facilities and to exclude precipitation from these facilities.

This practice can also utilize a roof to divert clean water from animal management areas and/or waste storage facilities.

Roofs and covers can improve air and water quality and facilitate the capture of biogases for energy production. The gasses captured include methane, ammonia, and others that cause odors. The methane can be captured and burned for fuel or flared to prevent its entering the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. The partial pressures created by placing a cover over a liquid storage or treatment facility allows more nitrogen to be retained in the waste that can be used for crop production.

Operation and maintenance requirements include periodic inspections with prompt repair of damaged components and monitoring to ensure the continued success of the practice.

When covers are used for biogas collection, additional safety precautions will be required.

Common Associated Practices

NRCS Conservation Practice Standard (CPS) Roofs and Covers (Code 367) is commonly applied with other conservation practices such as:

  • Anaerobic Digester (Code 366)
  • Waste Treatment Lagoon (Code 359)
  • Waste Storage Facility (Code 313)
  • Composting Facility (Code 317)
  • Agrichemical Handling Facility (Code 309)
  • On Farm Secondary Containment Facility (Code 319)


  • To view the full NRCS standard for Roofs and Covers please click here.

    Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Department of Agriculture 1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC United States 1-833-ONE-USDA Visit Company Website

    Solution Type

    • General Support and Other

    Vendor

    • Others

    Product

    • Other

    Problem

    • GHG
    • Nitrogen
    • Odor
    • Storage

    To view additional information about this vendor, click below.

    Solution Strengths, Weaknesses and Critical Indicators

    NOTE: There are multiple technologies that are used as part of integrated manure management systems and yet are not manure management types on their own. The impact of these technologies on their own would be minimal or very difficult to quantify.

    General Support & Other:

    • Can be an integral part of many manure management systems
    • Most projects have at least some equipment that supports operations of the main technology
    • This technology is not evaluated on its own, the NEAT Matrix for this technology is neutral unless utilized with other technologies.

    Newtrient Comments/Opinions:

    Newtrient is using the USDA-NRCS conservation practice standards as tools to assist dairy producers in understanding the standards and how they can be used to address resources concerns.

    To establish a Practice Standard a system or practice must be thoroughly vetted, approved, and standardized by the USDA at the federal and state level. These conservation practices have been developed to address various environmental resource concerns. Newtrient has developed a 9-point scoring process for ranking additives, practices, services, and technologies for the dairy industry. Recognizing the rigorous approval procedure used during the development of the NRCS Practice Standards, many of them score very highly and are worthy of consideration on any dairy where they apply.

    The information provided here is a summary of the selected conservation practices. For up to date and detailed information related to the full Practice Standards, please see the USDA NRCS website, linked above.

    Newtrient 9-Point Scoring Rating

    View the Scoring Page

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