Economic concepts can help farmers evaluate changes needed in their waste management systems to meet the challenges of environmental regulations and of rising energy and fertilizer costs. The concepts of diminishing returns, fixed and variable costs, opportunity costs, budgeting, and amortization are applied to several typical livestock production situations--dairy herds in the Lake States, Southwest, and Southeast; a Corn Belt hog operation and a large confinement hog operation; and a Corn Belt cattle feeder operation. Although more intensive manure management generally preserves more nutrients, additional direct costs of meeting environmental goals or expanding operations exceed nutrient recovery benefits.