Nebraska Extension will host a six-part webinar series this fall to help landowners and livestock producers better understand how to identify, grow and manage grasses in pastures and rangelands.
Webinar series to focus on range and pasture management
Effective nutrient management meets the nutrient needs of the plant and minimizes losses to the environment. Efficient nutrient management involves using the right fertilizer product and applying the right amount of it at the right time and in the right place, also known as the 4Rs of nutrient management. Farmers use practices such as diverse crop rotations, split-applying fertilizer, variable-rate application and soil testing to reduce the risk of overapplying nutrients.
Adopting efficient nutrient-management practices can save farmers about $30 per acre on land currently receiving excess nutrients, according to the USDA, with some examples approaching $50 per acre.
• Illinois farmers applying the university-recommended rate achieved the greatest returns. A Precision Conservation Management study of 280 farmers found that nutrient management was important for corn profitability and that most farms were applying nitrogen fertilizer at more than the most profitable rate. The most profitable farms applied nitrogen at the maximum return to nitrogen rate in the 150- to 200-pound nitrogen range, as recommended by some land-grant universities, as a preplant or side-dress application. Sixty-five percent of participating farmers were applying nitrogen in excess of that rate, which decreased profitability and water quality, as shown in Table 3.
• Wisconsin farms experience savings and, in some cases, yield increases from efficient nutrient management. A 2012 study involving 250 Wisconsin farms that adopted nutrient-management plans concluded that 69 percent of farmers reported financial savings averaging $18 per acre. Two-thirds of operations reduced nitrogen applications by an average of 32 pounds per acre. Three-quarters of study participants saw no change in corn yields, while 18 percent reported an increase.
• Variable-rate technology heled an Illinois farm cut costs. In a single-farm case study of the Ifft family farm conducted by the American Farmland Trust, the farmers began using variable-rate technology in 2010 to apply phosphorus and potassium. They pay an annual $0.50 per acre for the technology, which has enabled them to reduce their nutrient applications by 20 percent – for an annual cost savings of $20 per acre.
• Nutrient management saves fertilizer and machinery costs on an Illinois farm. In a case study of Thorndyke Farms in Illinois by the American Farmland Trust, the farmers credited nutrient management for saving them $66 per acre in nutrients and $2.73 per acre in machinery costs.
Managed grazing benefits producers
Managed grazing is the practice of creating and following a grazing plan that’s tailored to the manager’s production and conservation goals as well as the features of the property, including plant productivity, topography and water availability.
