Blue Earth County, MN Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Blue Earth County's livestock manure management ordinance, restated August 5, 2020 under Minn. Stat. chs. 115, 116 and 394 and Minnesota Rules ch. 7020, governs how many chickens, poultry or other livestock a property in unincorporated Blue Earth County can keep before it becomes a regulated animal feedlot. Sec. 6-61(b) requires a county feedlot permit before starting or expanding any feedlot of ten or more animal units, and Sec. 6-61(d) caps a new or expanded feedlot at 3,000 animal units. Because the animal unit factors in Sec.

6-61(g)'s table are so small for poultry, a backyard flock rarely trips the permit threshold: chickens with a liquid manure system count as 0.033 animal units each, layers and broilers over five pounds count 0.005, and broilers and layers under five pounds count just 0.003, meaning it takes roughly 303 chickens on liquid manure, or thousands of small broilers, to reach the ten-animal-unit permit trigger, compared with a single dairy cow over 1,000 pounds counting as 1.4. Sec. 6-64(3) separately exempts any feedlot under ten animal units, chicken or otherwise, as long as it does not create a potential pollution hazard, and Sec.

6-61(e) still requires a minimum five-acre lot for feedlots of 25 or fewer animal units without liquid manure storage, rising to ten acres if liquid manure storage is used or the operation exceeds 25 animal units. A permitted feedlot must also follow Minnesota Rules ch. 7020.0350 registration once it reaches ten animal units, and the county's feedlot officer administers permits, site plan review and inspections under Sec. 6-62 through 6-67.