The Manure Management interdisciplinary research issue team formed in 1990 to study several issues related to Iowa's rapidly accel­ erating increase in animal production, both in the number and size of animal units, particu­ larly swine units. Swine facilities being built in Iowa today include a number of 3,500-head farrowing units and 15,000-head (and larger) finishing units. The poultry industry has also grown rapidly. Economic pressures have caused animal production systems to become larger and more concentrated, requiring sig­ nificant capital investment. This concentra­ tion has occurred at the family farm level as well as in production systems controlled by large agribusiness firms. One disturbing trend is the increase in family farm units that do not own the animals they are producing.