wraps up successful mission
The five-year Neuse
Crop Management Project (NCMP), an educational outreach of the Neuse
Education Team (NETeam), wrapped up recently. The team, working
with several partners, reduced Neuse River Basin agricultural nitrogen
(N) by more than 34 percent.
“The NCMP was a complex
project involving agricultural producers, state agency personnel, nonprofit
organizations and the private sector,” said Dr. Deanna Osmond,
project leader and Soil Science
Department Extension leader.
The NETeam, a group of N.
C. State University scientists and Cooperative
Extension specialists based in the College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences and at county Extension centers,
helped the agricultural sector exceed the 1997 N reduction goal, set
by state legislation, known as the Neuse Rules.
To reach their goal, NCMP
staff demonstrated and implemented agricultural best management practices
(BMPs) on thousands of acres and provided state-mandated nutrient management
training to more than 1,200 producers.
They helped farmers implement
nutrient and integrated pest management practices on more than 100,000
cropland acres, decrease soil-applied herbicides by 40 percent and collectively
reduce overall N fertilizer application rates by more than 23 percent.
The Neuse Rules required
the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service to develop and provide nutrient
management training for anyone who fertilized 50 acres or more in the
Neuse River Basin. The basin-wide training, piloted in five counties
in 2000, was offered to 1,240 producers in 2001 and 2002. It focused
on helping producers and agribusiness better understand nutrient management,
off-site N movement and BMP impacts.
“Farmers especially
responded positively to the training’s environmental portion. Much
of the information was new to them,” noted Bill Lord, a NETeam
member and Extension area specialized agent in environmental education.
On several cooperating demonstration
farms that represented the Neuse Basin’s varied agricultural and
geographic regions, the NCMP team also showcased how farmers could use
nutrient management, controlled drainage and riparian buffers to reduce
N while increasing profits. Many farmers apparently can save $20-40
per acre through nutrient management, although nutrient management cost-benefit
analyses varied depending on soils and farmers’ practices. (For
fact sheets: http://www.soil.ncsu.edu/publications/Soilfacts/AG-565-01/SFnutmgt12-21-02.pdf)
Cost-benefit analyses for
the project’s other BMPs showed their benefits depended on the
specific BMP and geographic region. For instance, wooded riparian buffers
were more cost-effective in the Piedmont, but controlled drainage was
cost-effective only in the Lower Coastal Plain. (For fact sheets: http://www.neuse.ncsu.edu/aginfo.html.)
Working with county soil
and water districts, NCMP personnel installed grassed waterways, field
borders, critical-area plantings, sod-based rotations, wildlife areas,
water diversions, grass and shrub buffers and controlled drainage structures
in the demonstration areas. Those areas included demonstration farms
in the Piedmont in Franklin and Wake counties; in the Upper Coastal
Plain in Wayne County, in the Middle Coastal Plain in Lenoir County
and in the Lower Coastal Plain along Craven County’s Mosley Creek
Watershed.
Nutrient management planning
was another major project thrust. Neuse technicians, U.S. Natural Resources
Conservation Service staff and other agency personnel were trained to
write certifiable nutrient management plans, which, from 1999 to 2002
were implemented on more than 105,000 cropland acres. That exceeded
the original goal of 100,000 acres. In Wayne County alone, more than
69,000 acres received nutrient management plans, due to a unique strategy
and a computerized nutrient management planning tool.
To meet the challenge of
developing nutrient management plans for thousands of acres, project
personnel developed two innovative approaches: A simplified, computerized
N fertilizer spreadsheet for commercial fertilizer plans developed by
Andy Herring, an NCMP technician, and group nutrient management planning
sessions devised by Bob Pleasants, a Wayne County N.C. Cooperative Extension
agricultural agent. These group planning sessions meant greater outreach
to more farmers.
—Art
Latham
