Nutrient Management Plans - A Step in Developing Best Management Practices

Nutrient Management - the practice of using nutrients wisely for optimum economic benefit, while minimizing impact on the environment.

Photo Source - USDA-NRCS

As with any business, developing Best Management Practices (BMP) is essential to continued success and profitability. As you develop BMP's for your farm, a critical piece to include are Nutrient Management plans. In this post we are going to focus on commodity crops.

Many times BMP's are situational, especially with Agriculture and Nutrient Management. However, there are certain steps that broadly apply to developing a Nutrient Management plan for any farm. Once a plan is developed, the next step, developing BMP's for fertilization, can be put in place. Let's take a look at developing a Nutrient Management Plan



Farm Nutrient Managment Plan Steps:

1. Assess the natural nutrient sources like soil reserves and legume contributions
2. Identify fields or areas within fields that require special nutrient management practices
3. Assess nutrient needs for each field by crop
4. Determine quantity of nutrients that will be available from organic sources, such as manure or industrial or municipal wastes
5. Allocate nutrients available from organic sources
6. Calculate the amount of commercial fertilizer needed for each field
7. Determine the ideal time and method of application
8. Select nutrient sources that will be most effective and convenient for your operation.

List taken from the Illinois Agronomy Handbook, Robert G. Hoeft. rhoeft@uiuc.edu

No matter what arable crop you are producing, the above steps are what you should be thinking about and serves as an excellent guideline in developing your overall high-level nutrient plans. For step one, the most effective method in making this assessment is soil sampling each field. Soil sampling will provide you with the detailed data you need to see what the pH, Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K) levels are in your field(s). So be sure you have developed a continuous soil sampling plan. Once you have a complete analysis, be sure to, as step 2 states, review any special requirements. These can be federal and state conservation regulations and livestock waste use. Now we are ready to determine the total amount of nutrients that are needed for your crop and once this is done, calculate the amount of commercial fertilizer that is required, being sure to take into account the nutrients that are already/will be available from the organic sources.

Now, you have a general plan that can be utilized company wide as a benchmark to work from. As you begin working through your nutrient management plan, there are other key drivers that will be integral in the process.  Some of these are yield goals, soil composition, seed selection, tillage practices, and crop rotation. Each of these plays a part in your calculations.

Another key point to remember when working through your plan is that you are developing the framework and economics to begin precision, or site-specific agriculture. There are a multitude of studies and sources that show the benefits of adopting precision agriculture (lower input costs, increase yields, sustainability, and conservation) but nothing makes it more clear when you apply this thinking on your farm.

You will notice that I mentioned BMP's above. In the next posting in this series, I will cover BMP's for Nitrogen and Phosphorous.

So, what do you think about developing Nutrient Management plans on your farm? Worth the effort? Does it make good business sense and apply to your farm? Let us know.

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