Livestock Feedlots in Castro County, Texas

A genuinely major dairy county, not a marketing claim

Castro County is the second-largest dairy-producing county in the United States by volume, according to USDA production figures reported by local outlets -- more than 147 million pounds of milk produced in February 2023 alone. That scale is a function of the county's flat High Plains terrain, its irrigated feed-crop base (corn, sorghum, and silage grown with Ogallala Aquifer water, covered on the well-water page), and decades of dairy-industry investment concentrated in this part of the Panhandle. For a buyer, that means land in Castro County has a real chance of sitting near an active, permitted dairy operation -- this is working agricultural country at industrial scale, not scattered small farms.

How TCEQ regulates a Castro County dairy CAFO

Dairy operations in Castro County large enough to qualify as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, typically under the state's CAFO General Permit (TXG920000), which covers waste storage, manure and wastewater land application, and monitoring requirements. One of the more practically relevant statewide rules for a nearby landowner: dairy waste generally cannot be land-applied within 750 feet of an occupied residence, business structure, school (including its recreational areas), a permanent place of worship, or a public park. Multiple active CAFO general permits are on file for operations in Castro County -- TCEQ's own pending-and-issued permit database is the way to check whether a specific existing or proposed dairy sits near a parcel under consideration.

Because Castro County has no general zoning, there is no zoning-based buffer or use-district system separating a residential parcel from a future CAFO site -- proximity is governed by TCEQ's permit-specific setback and waste-management rules, not by county land-use planning. That cuts both ways: a buyer hoping to start a small dairy or feedlot operation of their own will need a TCEQ CAFO permit if the operation reaches CAFO-scale thresholds, and a buyer hoping for open pasture views has no zoning tool to prevent a new, properly permitted CAFO from later locating nearby.

A real safety event worth knowing about

On April 10, 2023, an explosion at the South Fork Dairy near Dimmitt killed approximately 18,000 cattle -- one of the deadliest known livestock-facility disasters in US history, and a nationally reported event tied directly to Castro County's dairy industry. The explosion was linked to a methane buildup from manure management infrastructure, a real reminder that large-scale dairy and feedlot operations carry genuine safety and environmental-management stakes, both for operators and for anyone living or working nearby. This history is worth knowing for context, though it does not itself change the regulatory framework described above.

What to check before buying feedlot or nearby land here

1. Search TCEQ's CAFO permit database for active or pending permits near a specific parcel before buying, whether the goal is to operate a dairy or simply to understand what's nearby.
2. If planning a new dairy or feedlot operation, confirm early with TCEQ whether the planned herd size crosses CAFO thresholds, which trigger the general (or individual) permit process and its waste-management and setback requirements.
3. Remember Castro County has no zoning to separate land uses -- a parcel that looks residential or recreational today could see a permitted CAFO located nearby later, subject only to TCEQ's permit conditions, not a county buffer.
4. Ask a specific well or water source's proximity to any CAFO waste-application fields, since nitrate and bacterial contamination risk from land-applied waste is a real water-quality consideration this close to intensive dairy operations.