MONROE — One thing COVID-19 has done is create new virtual opportunities for learning that didn’t exist last year. Farmers have been invited for years to create a nutrient management plan for their land, and this year is no different.
The nutrient management plan is a balance sheet of nutrients in the soil available for crop production and allows the user to add their fertilizer (manure and commercial) inputs into the plan for each field. This field-by-field accounting ensures excess nutrients are not being applied and allowed to run off into the waterways and that money is not being wasted on these excess nutrients.
The Nutrient and Pest Management Program (University of Wisconsin-Madison) is offering multiple training dates that cover the basics of nutrient management and an introduction to SnapPlus. The classes are free and held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with breaks built in. The same training will be covered on five different dates — Jan. 5, Jan. 7, Feb. 3, Feb. 16 and March 1. These classes are all virtual and accessible on a computer or smart phone.
Register at https://go.wisc.edu/9ozj4l at least three days in advance of the training date planned to be attended. There will be classes on SnapPlus, the free program that is used to create the plan. The Green County Land and Water Conservation Department will help guide farmers in the county through the process of using SnapPlus and finalizing individual plans by spring.
Farmers should have their soil samples completed in the last four years and analyzed at a DATCP approved lab in order to use in a nutrient management plan. Soil samples don’t have to be completed in order to attend the class and learn what it takes to write a plan. Soil samples are a bare minimum to evaluating land and understanding its capabilities to grow crops and protect the environment.
If interested in signing up for a nutrient management plan class, visit https://go.wisc.edu/9ozj4l, or if having trouble, contact Tonya Gratz with the Green County Land and Water Conservation Department at 608-325-4195 extension 121 or email at Tonya.Gratz@wi.nacdnet.net for more information.