In North Dakota, 2025 could be another year when the state puts out the welcome mat for the livestock industry.
Following [task force recommendations](https://ndlegis.gov/sites/default/files/resource/68-2023/legislative-management-final-reports/2025finalreport.pdf), the Legislature will consider updating how much local governments can restrict feedlot operations. The panel was specifically looking at distances allowed between larger livestock sites and homes, businesses and schools.
Doug Goehring, North Dakota’s agriculture commissioner, took part in the discussions and argued while the rules would be more relaxed, they are still tougher than those in other states. He said exemptions could be carved out — moving feedlots back a bit — by the use of an “odor modeling tool”
“It looks at prevailing winds and information that’s collected from different data points, weather stations,” Goehring explained. “Counties can actually look at it and determine if the setbacks that are in place are sufficient, or they could actually grant a variance.”
Feedlots with large animal herds, sometimes known as concentrated animal feeding operations, are under scrutiny from environmentalists over the effects on air and water quality. State leaders say North Dakota lags behind neighboring states in animal agriculture but some projects have faced local backlash. A Senate bill, based on panel recommendations, calls for reducing the maximum setback distance by a quarter mile in most cases.
Supporters of expanding livestock output said it brings more jobs to smaller towns.
Aaron Birst, executive director of the North Dakota Association of Counties, who sat in on the task force, said it recognized the need but cautioned it cannot outweigh how a local community values quality-of-life metrics and whether they would be harmed by an industry.
“It’s not even just concentrated feeding-lot operations. It’s any economic development, whether it’s oil activity or putting in a large Amazon station,” Birst outlined. “Those all, if they want to be successful, have to have local government buy-in.”
While Birst acknowledged a healthy balance is desirable, his group has yet to take a stance on the proposed changes. There were similar debates in 2023 when the Legislature narrowed the scope of corporate farm regulations. More broadly, researchers at the University of Missouri found despite what backers of large livestock operations say, their economic strengths [do not stretch as far](https://ikerdj.mufaculty.umsystem.edu/presentation-papers/factory-farms-cafos/economic-realities-of-cafos) as advertised.
