large livestock operations

by Mónica Cordero, Iowa Capital Dispatch
July 24, 2026

Iowa’s official database of animal feeding operations, which serves as the state’s primary regulatory inventory of livestock facilities, does not include thousands of facilities that researchers say contribute to the state’s growing manure burden and potential water pollution. 

After spending about a year reviewing aerial photographs, satellite imagery and state records, researchers with the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental advocacy organization, identified 15,309 livestock facilities across Iowa using data current through July 2025, more than 4,000 additional operations beyond the roughly 11,000 listed in the Iowa Department of Natural Resources database.