Improving Nutrient Management by Beginning Farmers by Predicting Nitrogen Release from Cover Crops

The current inability to develop credible, accurate nutrient budgets when using Cover Crops in a rotation limits adoption and use of Cover Crops, resulting in continued soil health degradation and excessive fertilization/water quality impacts. This project will demonstrate the effectiveness of a new tool (MinImob) to manage nitrogen from Cover Crops. MinImob calculates how much nitrogen should be available based on soil type and other localized parameters. Demonstrations will be established at five farms over two years. The benefits of using Minlmob will be transferred and communicated to producers using factsheets, field days, workshops, newsletters, and websites.