2017 Nutrient Management Initiative Statewide Results

The Nutrient Management Initiative (NMI) is a simple tool to help evaluate the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer practices through the use of on-farm trials. The NMI provides direct funding from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to farmers and crop advisers to support on-farm trials, including nitrogen rate, timing, stabilizer, and source evaluations. In 2017, 115 farmers worked with 31 crop advisers to establish 118 on-farm trials geared towards improving nitrogen use efficiency on their own farms. Since 2015, a total 507 on-farm NMI trials have been completed in Minnesota. The program continues to be competitive, as funding is limited. The program is not able to support the strong demand and growing number of applicants each year. Organizing and evaluating the results from the NMI is difficult with many variables to consider, including different farming practices, field variability, and weather patterns that can influence results. The purpose of NMI is to provide farmers with an opportunity to compare different nitrogen practices on their own farms and evaluate other trials from the same region. The NMI can go a long way to help relay the positive efforts farmers are already making on their farms to the public, and serve as a great tool for discussion on ideas to help benefit yields and water quality in Minnesota.