clean and clear

agriculture

Nutrient management

Nutrient management is a critical part of any farm operation. Nutrients are spread on farm fields around the world as a way to help crops grow. However, those nutrients also pose a threat to water quality when they eventually leave the field.

A component of integrated crop management, nutrient management is an important tool used to protect water quality and improve the financial viability of agriculture. The process of nutrient management utilizes proper nutrient distribution on cropland and farm management techniques in order to closely match crop needs and limit nutrients entering water resources. Two plant nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus, found in animal waste and fertilizers are of particular concern. Both of these nutrients, required for plant life, pose specific threats when moved off intended sites and into water. When supplied in excess concentrations to aquatic ecosystems, phosphorus causes harm by accelerating algae growth, lowering dissolved oxygen content, and contributing to fish death.

However, site-specific farm management techniques can lower the threat of phosphorus entering surface water. Such management techniques used in the nutrient management process include:

• conservation tillage (plowing in such a way as to not produce a lot of erosion)
• strip cropping or contour planting (planting an erosion reducing crop such as hay between a crop associated with more erosion, like corn, and a water source)
• crop rotation (switching between corn and hay to offer more protection)
• and vegetated buffers, shrubs, trees or grass that are planted to help stop runoff from farm fields.

Each helps to reduce erosion and subsequent phosphorus transport into surface water.

Nitrogen, on the other hand, poses a threat to human health when present in excess concentrations in drinking water. Just as there are management techniques applicable to safeguarding surface water from phosphorus, site-specific management techniques such as nutrient setbacks from wells ensures reduced nitrogen mobility into groundwater. Through the implementation of a nutrient management plan, associated site-specific management techniques, and precise calculation of crop nutrient requirements, water resource protection is increased and farm fertilizer costs are reduced. The nutrient management plan program has enrolled more than 128,000 acres since the program's inception.

Through the allocation of nutrient management plan incentive grants, the Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets' Integrated Crop Management program makes nutrient management a feasible, attractive option for Vermont's farming community.

Visit the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets' web site: Resources for Nutrient Management for a copy of a nutrient management incentive payment application, or contact:
Abigail Pajak
(802) 828-1397
Abbi.Pajak@state.vt.us