Livestock Feedlots and Manure-Management Rules in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin

Chapter 28: Manitowoc County's own livestock siting ordinance

Separately from the Wisconsin DNR's statewide WPDES/CAFO permitting program (which kicks in for the largest operations, generally starting around 1,000 Animal Units), Manitowoc County has run its own livestock facility siting ordinance, codified as Chapter 28 of the county code, since it took effect January 1, 2007. The ordinance, administered by the county's Soil and Water Conservation Department, requires any livestock operation expanding past 750 Animal Units -- a lower threshold than the state CAFO trigger -- to obtain a county license before doing so, following the state's model livestock facility siting standards (Wis. Stat. § 93.90 and ATCP 51) that Wisconsin counties and municipalities may adopt locally.

County officials have credited the ordinance with a real, measurable effect: before 2007, the county saw roughly 25 to 30 manure-related complaints and spills a year, and that number is reported to have been cut roughly in half since the ordinance took effect. For anyone evaluating farmland with an existing or planned large livestock operation on it -- or rural-residential land near one -- Chapter 28 licensing status (not just whether a state WPDES permit exists) is a relevant, county-specific check.

The five-year manure-agreement requirement, and its May 2026 repeal

One specific, long-standing term of a Chapter 28 license was a requirement that an applicant secure signed five-year manure-spreading agreements from the landowners whose fields would receive the operation's manure -- meant to document that the farm had enough land available to spread manure safely over time, not just at the moment of licensing. That requirement became a point of friction: Manitowoc County Farm Bureau leadership argued it was an unreasonable long-term commitment to ask of landowners who might not want to commit their land for five years running, and the county's own Land Conservation Committee voted unanimously, on two separate occasions, to drop the requirement.

That recommendation became county policy in May 2026, when newly elected County Executive Tyler Martell signed his first executive order ending the five-year manure-spreading-agreement requirement under the Chapter 28 licensing process. For a buyer, the practical upshot is that manure-application land commitments tied to a nearby licensed operation may now be shorter-term or more fluid than they were under the pre-2026 rule -- worth asking about directly rather than assuming the older five-year-commitment framework still applies.

Karst geology: the backdrop the ordinance was written for

Manitowoc County sits within the same Silurian-dolomite karst belt that runs through Kewaunee, Door, Brown, and Calumet counties -- terrain where soils over the bedrock are often thin and the rock itself is fractured enough that surface contaminants, especially livestock manure, can reach groundwater far faster than in areas with thicker soil cover. A joint five-county study across this region found that roughly 14% of 7,521 private-well samples exceeded a federal health advisory level, which is the underlying reason county-level manure-management rules like Chapter 28 exist on top of the state's own WPDES/CAFO framework in the first place. If you're relying on a private well anywhere in the county, this regional vulnerability is worth factoring into your due diligence regardless of proximity to any specific licensed operation -- see our national well-water guide for testing basics, and check with the county Soil and Water Conservation Department for any local karst-area guidance.

A single 2023 news report on statewide CAFO-fee legislation described Manitowoc as having the most CAFOs of any Wisconsin county (framed there in terms of a state legislative district), but this project could not independently verify that ranking against the Wisconsin DNR's own county-level CAFO statistics during this research pass -- treat it as a plausible but unconfirmed data point rather than a settled fact, and check the DNR's current CAFO statistics map directly if the exact count or ranking matters to your decision.

What to actually check before buying near a licensed livestock operation here

• Ask the Manitowoc County Soil and Water Conservation Department (920-683-4183) whether a specific nearby operation is licensed under Chapter 28, what its current Animal Unit count and manure-management plan look like, and whether the parcel you're considering is itself included in that plan as manure-application land.
• For any operation large enough to also need a state WPDES permit (generally above roughly 1,000 Animal Units), search the Wisconsin DNR's CAFO permit database directly for the current permit terms, since a county Chapter 28 license and a state WPDES permit are separate approvals that can each change independently.
• Ask specifically about manure-spreading commitment length now that the five-year agreement requirement has been dropped (May 2026) -- a shorter or more flexible commitment period could mean the fields around a property shift in and out of active manure application more often than under the older rule.
• If relying on a private well anywhere in the county, test for total coliform bacteria and nitrate given the region's documented karst-driven contamination risk, regardless of whether a licensed livestock operation is nearby.
• For rural-residential or recreational buyers near a large dairy operation, factor in realistic odor, truck-traffic, and seasonal manure-spreading considerations that a standard listing won't disclose.