Nutrient management

Nutrient management is the science and art directed to link soil, crop, weather, and hydrologic factors with cultural, irrigation, and soil and water conservation practices to achieve the goals of optimizing nutrient use efficiency, yields, crop quality, and economic returns, while reducing off-site transport of nutrients that may impact the environment.Nutrient management is the skillful task of matching a specific field soil, climate, and crop management conditions to rate, source, timing, and place (commonly known as the 4R nutrient stewardship) of nutrient application.

Some important factors that need to be considered when managing nutrients include (a) the application of nutrients considering the achievable optimum yields and, in some cases, crop quality; (b) the management, application, and timing of nutrients using a budget based on all sources and sinks active at the site; and (c) the management of soil, water, and crop to minimize the off-site transport of nutrients from nutrient leaching out of the root zone, surface runoff, and volatilization (or other gas exchanges).

There can be potential interactions because of differences in nutrient pathways and dynamics. For instance, practices that reduce the off-site surface transport of a given nutrient may increase the leaching losses of other nutrients. These complex dynamics present nutrient managers the difficult task of integrating soil, crop, weather, hydrology, and management practices to achieve the best balance for maximizing profit while contributing to the conservation of our biosphere.

A crop nutrient management plan is a tool that farmers can use to increase the efficiency of all the nutrient sources a crop uses while reducing production and environmental risk, ultimately increasing profit. It is generally agreed that there are ten fundamental components of a Crop Nutrient Management Plan. Each component is critical to helping analyze each field and improve nutrient efficiency for the crops grown. These components include:

When such a plan is designed for animal feeding operations (AFO), it may be termed a "manure management plan." In the United States, some regulatory agencies recommend or require that farms implement these plans in order to prevent water pollution. The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has published guidance documents on preparing a comprehensive nutrient management plan (CNMP) for AFOs.

The International Plant Nutrition Institute has published a 4R plant nutrition manual for improving the management of plant nutrition. The manual outlines the scientific principles behind each of the four R’s or “rights” and discusses the adoption of 4R practices on the farm, approaches to nutrient management planning, and measurement of sustainability performance.

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