Increasingly stringent regulatory discharge limits intensify the difficulty of maintaining cost-effective high strength food processing wastewater treatment. This paper outlines how a poultry processor faced the challenge of facility growth and pending new discharge limits. The poultry processing facility had historically treated wastewater through aerated lagoons and overland flow. An engineering study necessitated by new discharge limits lead to the design of a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) treatment system. The design routed SBR effluent to a new slow rate irrigation system for summer (low flow season) discharge and direct discharge from November 1 through May 31. Because SBR technology facilitates denitrification and minimizes nitrogen (N) loading through the irrigations system, land applications of both effluent and biosolids from the SBR is possible on the same field. While this strategy was generally successful, SBR startup and operation problems were experienced. System performance after a full year of operation and response to process difficulties are detailed.