Why do you need a nutrient management plan?
Because a nutrient management plan makes sense from the environmental, risk management, and economic points of view. If you manage or own an equestrian facility,
- how well do you recycle manure?
- How well do you manage the winter feeding areas?
Are you currently using a nutrient management plan that is updated annually by a certified planner? If a Division of Environmental
Protection officer visited your operation, could you document how you are minimizing erosion, utilizing manure, and applying fertilizer at the right time and rate?
A nutrient management plan helps to manage commercial fertilizer and animal manure input costs. It also helps facilities to do their part to improve surface water quality.
A nutrient management plan for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium should consider all potential sources of nutrients. Facility managers should not see nutrient management planning as a regulatory hoop to jump through, but as a management tool that can improve profitability.
Over the past decade, many equestrian facility managers, and farmers have developed nutrient management plans so they could safely apply nutrients to their land, get the most nutrient value from manure, and ensure water quality is maintained in their local rivers, streams, lakes and ponds.
Even if your state doesn’t already require that you have a nutrient management plan, your pastures, your streams and your neighbors will all benefit from your doing so.
Creating a nutrient management plan isn’t expensive or difficult, and it shouldn’t prevent anyone from wanting to keep horses or from becoming an Audubon Lifestyles Equestrian Facility.
A Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) addresses the nutrient, sediment, or pathogen discharges produced at an equestrian facility. Although each plan is unique, nutrient management plans may cover the following key topics:
- Proper storage and handling of manure and maintenance of the storage structure.
- Proper land application of the manure.
- Amount of manure generated on an operation and nutrient content
- Appropriate site management that looks at the risks on a particular field, such as sinkholes, streams running through the field, shallow groundwater, or erosion that needs to be controlled.
- Barnyard and paddock management to minimize runoff
- In-field manure stacking specifications
- Record keeping that documents land practices, so that if anyone has questions, there is proof of what is being done and why.
- Feed management to improve feed efficiency so that nutrient content of manure is reduced.
- Alternative uses for the manure. This component is needed by producers whose operations generate more manure than can be applied on their own land.
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