Animal Feeding Operations Database

The Animal Feeding Operations (AFO) Database of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) lets the public look up DNR's regulated livestock and poultry facilities: their locations, animal numbers and construction reviews, their manure management plans, production areas, manure storage structures and treatment systems, and facility inventory reports.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name animal feeding operation records among its standard record sources. On farmland and the properties around it, this is where to check for a regulated confinement or feedlot and its manure storage structures.

Three Iowa details shape how to read it.

• Which facilities. DNR says the application includes facilities that EPA defines as medium or large animal feeding operations. Iowa generally has two types: confinements, which are totally roofed, and open feedlots, which are partially or totally unroofed. Regulations differ by the size, type and age of the facility.
• How far to trust it. DNR says it cannot guarantee the accuracy and completeness of the information, that some historic data such as animal numbers were collected by a variety of methods and from different sources, and that with more than 11,000 sites in Iowa a change in a facility's status is not known immediately and may not represent what is occurring now. Its reports include only data from active facilities. Compare what the database shows with what the site visit finds.
• Manure discharges are charted. DNR's Manure Discharge Chart documents discharges from animal feeding operations that reach a water of the state, from September 2013 to the present, and is updated at the beginning of each month. DNR's Field Office Compliance database also tracks manure releases; see Spill reports.

Where to look a site up

• DNR's AFO Database search. DNR says the fastest way to find a facility is its 5-digit Facility ID; otherwise search by facility name, owner's name, location or facility characteristics.
• DNR's AFO Siting Atlas, an interactive map DNR describes as assisting in the siting of animal feeding operations, which can be used to determine if a potential building or expansion location is in karst terrain or one hundred year floodplain, or near a major water source. The pages read do not say it shows existing facilities.
• The Manure Discharge Chart, linked from DNR's AFO Online Services page.

DNR asks owners who notice inaccurate information to contact their local DNR field office for corrections.

Getting the file

DNR's Records Center, at 6200 Park Ave, Suite 200, Des Moines, is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except state holidays. DNR's Open Records Request page says requests to inspect public records go to the Office of the Chief Information Officer through the Iowa Information and Public Records Request Portal, and may also be made in person at a record center, by email to dnr.records.request@dnr.iowa.gov, or by mail.

Sources

Iowa Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 12, 2026:

• AFO Online Services, last modified February 17, 2025.
• Report a Spill, last modified January 8, 2026.
• Open Records Request, last modified March 13, 2026.