Least Cost Solutions for Removing Poultry Litter from Eucha-spavinaw Watershed: Optimum Allocation and Processing into Electricity and Fertilizer Under Phosphorous Restrictions

This study dealt with minimizing the cost of removing specified amounts of litter by processing it, by transporting it from the watershed, or combination of both. It was conducted in three different scenarios. Scenario I analyzed the reduction of Oklahoma poultry litter with an assumption that no processing plant is established. A linear programming model was used to find optimum solution. Scenario II examined the combined alternatives of establishing processing plants and transporting some amount of Oklahoma litter out of the watershed. Mixed integer programming was used to find optimum solution. Scenario III was like Scenario II, but included litter from West Arkansas. The result of this study indicates that processing is an effective way of removing litter from the watershed. Transporting litter out of the region is more costly. Even if processing is 50% less profitable than projections indicate, it is still less costly than transporting the litter out of the region. There is a tradeoff between reducing cost of removing litter, and amount of litter removed from Oklahoma. Profitability is increased by allowing Arkansas litter to be, but this reduces the amount of litter removed from Oklahoma.