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In February 1998, the Oklahoma Registered Poultry Feeding Operations Act required Oklahoma poultry farmers to receive 9 hours of training, covering all aspects of waste management before July 1, 1999 -- and 3 hours of update training every year thereafter.

OSU extension specialists, working with county-based extension educators, created nine modules that broke the initial training down into manageable, one-hour sessions. Over 1,800 individuals have received at least three hours of initial training as of July 1, 2002, of which 1,395 completed all nine hours. Initial training curriculum has evolved over the years from a series of slide sets to Video/DVD presentations with workbooks. In the 2001-2002 training year, 140 hours of annual update training were given in eight counties, resulting in nearly 4,500 personhours of training.

A survey of poultry producers practices in Adair, Cherokee, and Delaware Counties, Oklahoma one year after initial training became mandatory, shows some quantitative results of the training program. The percentage of poultry producers keeping litter application records increased from 34% in 1997, to 88% in 2000. Producers who considered using litter storage facilities increased from 13% to 43% during the same period.

Poultry waste management training has raised the visibility of county extension offices. The program has also won a number of awards: An ASAE educational aids blue ribbon for a CD compiled from the initial training curriculum in 2000, The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service Outstanding Group Award in 2001, and a USDA Secretary's Honor Award in 2002.