Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMPs)
CNMP Training for the Professional Agronomist

The National Association of State Departments of
Agriculture Research Foundation
1156 15th Street, N.W.
Suite 1020
Washington, D.C. 20005
(202)296-9680
(202)296-9686
nasda@patriot.net

WRITING NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT PLANS WORKSHOP
Omaha, Neb., Sept. 24 & 25, 2001
—Materials and Presentations

The management of animal waste has emerged over the past few years as a major environmental issue. Two issues of concern are the non-point source pollution of the Nation's water from animal feeding operations, and the inadequacy of traditional land-based manure nutrient management strategies as livestock operations in some geographic areas surpass the capacity of the land the assimilate manure nutrients.

In March 1999, the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issues the Unified National Strategy of Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs). This "Unified AFO Strategy" envisions that all animal feeding operations will develop, and be responsible for, implementing a technically sound, economically feasible, site-specific comprehensive nutrient management plan by 2009. According to the 1997 Census of Agriculture, there are 1.4 million animal feeding operations nationwide. USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Partnership Workload Analysis estimates that approximately 272, 000 of these operations will seek assistance from the NRCS and local conservation districts over the next ten years. Currently, the NRCS is able to service approximately 10,000 animal feeding operations annually.

To get the most effective and balanced comprehensive nutrient management plans, only certified individuals may develop, review, and/or revise those plans. Such individuals are drawn from a talent pool made up of individuals from NRCS, the Cooperative Extension Service; state, local, and tribal agricultural and conservation agencies, industry associations; private sector consultants; and professional engineers. Certification program responsibilities include establishing minimum requirements for an individual to become certified through education, training, and experience.

Several states have successfully developed guidance for developing CNMPs with technical assistance from NRCS and other third-party vendors/consultants. However, there is no uniform framework/system/standard/operating procedures or checklists that all states can easily adopt.

Objective of Phase One of the NASDA Project:

To facilitate, design, and develop a model state training module for public and private service providers for the development of Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMPs).

A. Phase One Beta Training Module

The first phase of the project will take 12 months to complete. The lead sponsors for the project are the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Research Foundation and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). NASDA is directing this project and supporting it with funds secured from an EPA grant for this purpose. NPPC is supporting the project with data and information relevant to the preparation of Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMP's), and with NPPC staff involvement as NPPC deems desirable and appropriate.

Phase One entails the design and beta testing of a training program/workshop/module that will provide agronomists and other professionals with the background information and knowledge needed to assist farmers and ranchers in developing and implementing CNMP's. Although the key audience for the training module will be private sector crop advisors and consultants, the training will be structured to be of comparable value to agricultural producers and public agency personnel with agronomic backgrounds.

A team of qualified professionals have been assembled to carry out the project. The NASDA Research Foundation is providing policy leadership and direction for the project. Professional consultants are assisting in the development and writing of key pieces of the curriculum, and guiding the substantive development of the training module. Staff from NASDA and NPPC are participating on this team as fully and completely as either deems needed to ensure that the product reflects their interests.

Accurate and up to date information on factors affecting the preparation of CNMP's, including state laws, programs and requirements will be a critical component of the training module. NPPC has databases containing such information and the project will draw upon those databases to develop the curriculum. In addition, NASDA is updating their 1997 State Survey on Waste and Manure Management Regulations.

In the course of developing and beta testing this training module, the team will:

1) Review current nutrient management training and certification programs in key states and determine what is working, what is not, and why.

2) Develop a generic, step-by-step CNMP checklist that can help producers, and those assisting them, know and understand the process of developing, implementing and maintaining a useful CNMP.

3) Describe in writing the need for policies that recognize that CNMP development and implementation often will need to occur in stages over several years, growing in complexity. Policies must reflect the real world practicalities of helping producers adopt more sophisticated nutrient management techniques and practices, and how this progression must be reflected in the training program.

4) Describe in writing how and why public and private sector professionals and agricultural producers will have to work together in teams to ensure that quality CNMP's are developed, implemented and maintained.

5) An explicit discussion of how an environmental assessment program, such as America=s Clean Water Foundation's "On Farm Odor and Environmental Assessment and Review," can help producers and the professionals identify and address an operation's nutrient management needs.

Phase One of the project will result in written and graphical materials, organized into a workshop curriculum and beta tested in an actual CNMP workshop that can be used to train public and private sector advisers and qualified producers on the preparation of CNMP's. Developing a CNMP is a complex task. The training module developed here will be designed to help the trainees identify important resources to assist the producer begin the task of CNMP development, visualize all the steps required to complete it and provide the technical assistance to develop, implement, and maintain the plan.

To help tie in this training program with existing private sector training requirements, completion of this training program would provide up to 20 Certified Crop Adviser Continuing Education Units.

B. Phase Two - Next Steps for CNMP

Developing comprehensive nutrient management plans that includes facilities, land application, and natural resources requires expertise from across disciplines and project management skills to blend the information. Integrating information from multiple sources into a cohesive plan and implementing it will pose a challenge to producers and their consultants. The private and public sectors must provide coordinated assistance to producers in order to implement and maintain the needed hundreds of thousands CNMPs.

Phase Two of the NASDA project could entail identifying innovative planning tools and strategies that protect the environment and farm profitability. These findings could be coupled with an analysis of the compatibility of new technologies with the current rules and regulations.

New technologies such as GIS, remote sensing, precision weather, and yield mapping will fuel the data needs of new planning tools. These site-specific technologies will enable producers to precisely place nutrients to optimize crop growth and reduce environmental hazards. Today's nutrient management regulatory requirements rely on book values for yield goals, nutrient removal and uptake and fixed distanced buffers around environmental sensitive areas.

Phase Two could also entail an education campaign directed to private sector advisors and consultants to increase their awareness and understanding of the role they can play in providing third party technical assistance to their producer customers.

Alternatively, in Phase Two, NASDA could place emphasis on how to best certify CNMP planners. NASDA could develop materials and guidance for use with USDA-NRCS and other possible certifying institutions about how the CNMP planner certification program should best be carried out, given the technological opportunities that exist, and the current and emerging regulatory requirements that producers face.