Farm Nutrient Management

Description

Farm management is the study of the business principles in farming. It may be defined as the science of the organization and management of a farm enterprise for the purpose of securing the greatest continuous profit. Plant nutrient management is critical to the sustainability of agricultural production systems. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur are the four macronutrients required for crop growth. In order to maintain agricultural sustainability, nutrients that are removed from the soil by crops must be replaced. Different crops have different nutrient demands and the proportion of nutrients taken up by the plant may not be the same as that exported. Probably the most challenging aspect of developing and implementing a farm nutrient management plan is the advance planning of manure applications to cropland fields. This involves estimating the amount of manure produced on the farm and then planning specific manure application rates for individual cropland fields. Sounds challenging—and it is, but there are some tricks to the trade. The best way to find out what methods of farm organization and management are most successful is to study the methods now used and the profits secured on large numbers of farms, and determine how the more successful ones differ from the less successful, and find to which of the differences is due.