Nutrient Management Planning

Nutrient Management Planning (NMP) is the management of the amount, source, timing, and method of application (placement) of soil amendments and plant nutrients.  Your NMP should help you: budget, supply, and conserve nutrients for plant production; properly utilize manure or organic byproducts as a plant nutrient source; minimize agricultural non-point source pollution of surface and groundwater resources; protect air quality by reducing nitrogen emissions and odors; and maintain or improve your soil health conditions.  In Vermont, all certified small farm operations and all permitted medium and large farm operations managing manure, agricultural wastes, or fertilizer for use as nutrient sources are required to implement a field-by-field nutrient management plan that follows the USDA NRCS NMP Code 590.

Writing and Funding Your Nutrient Management Plan (PDF) will quickly explain what is an NMP and how one can be completed.

2025 Nutrient Management Planning (NMP) Classes

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These classes are scheduled to start Tuesday, January 21, 2025 and run for 6 consecutive weeks (Jan. 21, 28 and Feb. 4, 11, 18, 25, 2025). Class hours are 10:30am to 2:00pm and include lecture and NMP work time. This class will be virtually offered. 

The Zoom link for the 2025 virtual NMP classes - 

https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/j/82485397257?pwd=aa8McZv0ncwzOQr0j9TLhHH3wEOOxc.1

Meeting ID: 824 8539 7257 
Passcode: 006963 
Dial by your location 
• +1 646 931 3860 US 
• +1 929 436 2866 US (New York) 
• +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) 
• +1 780 666 0144 Canada 
Find your local number: https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/u/kgP9cjkbN

 

To request a disability-related accommodation to participate in this program, please contact Susan Brouillette at 802-656-7611 or Susan.Brouillette@uvm.edu by January 8, 2025. 

Resources and Information

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GoCrop Update Session Part I and Part II –

GoCrop is celebrating with a new look and new tools. GoCrop meets all the same reporting requirements you rely on, now with a streamlined, modern interface. We offered a 2 hour zoom session for this update. Click here to watch the recorded video for Part I.

Following is the Zoom connection information for Part II goCrop update session - 

Topic: goCrop Tutorial Part II

WHEN: To Be Announced, possibly in early March

Join Zoom Meeting

https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/j/84335825150?pwd=ZhW3UUKONOYCnajONwabybIstyfvkr.1

Meeting ID: 843 3582 5150. Passcode: 293306

Dial by your location: • +1 646 931 3860 US, • +1 929 436 2866 US (New York), • +1 780 666 0144 Canada

Find your local number: https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/u/kdq2k11AwZ

Recorded Videos (from 2025)
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Recorded Videos (from 2024)
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Recorded Videos (from 2023)
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Recorded Videos (from 2022)
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Recorded Videos (from 2021)
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Here's a goCrop refresher tutorial from 2017 for the web:

GoCrop Mobile Tutorial From May 8, 2020

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This tutorial provides step-by-step instruction on how to download the mobile app, enter records, view field and farm information, and navigate between pages.  This tutorial is Android specific.  However, this tutorial is applicable for other mobile platforms because the information provided in the tutorial on how to enter records and where to access information is similar on other mobile devices (iPhones, tablets, etc.). 

Measuring Healthy Soils - June 4, 2021, 1:00pm To 3:00pm EST

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Part of the Northeast Healthy Soil Network Symposium. Includes Heather Darby as the moderator and panelists of farm owners, agricultural professionals, and researchers. Supported by the UVM Gund Institute for Environment. View the recorded YouTube video here. You can also view information at the Gund Institute.

Ever wonder if your farm is a net importer or exporter of nutrients?  Have you sat down and penciled out the math on the financial benefits of cover crops? goCrop is here to help with that!  With newly integrated analysis tools and easy to interpret reports, goCrop is a one stop shop to write your NMP and calculate a Whole Farm Mass Nutrient Balance, based on software from Cornell, and Cover Crop Economics based on the NRCS calculator.  Tim Magnant said, “Reports are nice because we can see the results. We are doing a good job. This report isn’t for me, it’s for the naysayers…The reports work in my favor because they show that the agronomics we are doing are working. It’s proof. We are doing as good as we can do. This shows me we are doing pretty well.” Find out more about what farmers like you had to say about these new goCrop features!

View our NMP Course Flyer (PDF) to find out about our NMP course and when it will be offered again. Getting a head start on preparing for the January class is very important as some key things need to be completed in order to take the course including: 1) having a completed Land Treatment Plan (LTP), 2) having up-to-date soil samples (within 3 years), and 3) having an up-to-date manure sample (need yearly).  You may also be eligible for grant funds through the Conservation District (RCPP funds) or NRCS (EQIP funds) to help pay for the development of your NMP.  Call your local office for additional information.This brochure Writing and Funding Your Nutrient Management Plan (PDF) may also be very helpful.

Nutrient Management Planning

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The Digging In training manual (PDF) has been developed by University of Vermont Extension to facilitate the instruction of a nutrient management course for livestock farmers. During the course, farmers learn to develop and implement their own nutrient management plans, and gain an understanding of how their plans were put together, and the importance of nutrient management planning from both economic and environmental perspectives.

The course aims to provide a comfortable, small-group, learning opportunity for the farmers. Once the course is finished, class participants will have generated nutrient management plans following Vermont’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) 590 Nutrient Management Standard. A multi-agency educational team conducts the program. The course is taught over a six-week period with participants attending a three-hour session each week. The farmers will spend approximately fifteen hours in classroom instruction and activities to estimate annual animal manure quantities, document and plan crop rotations, identify fields with manure spreading restrictions, analyze soil test reports, and calculate on-farm nutrient credits for animal manure and legumes. Farmers will also spend an estimated twenty hours at home writing their nutrient management plans. This guide is designed to present some of the instruction that is given in the course. In addition, it gives instructions on how to use the UVM Extension Nutrient Management web application, goCrop and the accompanying mobile app for record keeping.

Vegetable Nutrient Management

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In 2017, a one-day workshop was offered for vegetable growers of all scales, and highly recommended for RAPs compliance. At the end of the workshop, growers:

  • Learned how the Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs) apply to their farm,
  • Understand the impact excess nutrients have on the environment,
  • Can interpret soil test results, calculate nutrients, and choose soil amendments, and
  • Can draft a RAPs compliant nutrient management plan

Following are some related Vegetable NMP information.

Articles and Manuals
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Videos and Webinar Recordings
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Research Results

Visit our research results page to see reports on cover crop variety trials (including cover crop mixes), planting date and seeding rates, and cover crop termination and reduced tillage studies.

Support NWCS