The deadline to sign-up for the 2023 Nutrient Management Plan Writing Workshop is soon approaching. The UW-Madison Extension, NRCS, DATCP, and Columbia County Land and Water Conservation, are partnering to offer a workshop for understanding and writing a nutrient management plan for your farm. In order to be considered qualified by DATCP (Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, & and Consumer Protection), and write your own plan, you will need to attend both training days on February 28 and March 14.
The workshops are from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm on February 28th and March 14th in the meeting rooms 113 and 114 at the Columbia County Administration Building, 112 East Edgewater Street, Portage, WI.
Day 1: February 28th - will have an emphasis on soil health education. We will be watching the UW-Extension virtual NMP training session that will include short presentations and provide time for questions on soil health and NMP’s.
Day 2: March 14th - will be designed to complete your own NMP using Snap Plus. There will be Land and Water Conservation staff and UW-Extension staff in attendance to help you work through your plan.
To better assist you with your plan development, please be sure to bring all the materials listed below:
· Field maps with field numbers and acreage
· Current soil sample information (must be less than 4 years old) and bring along corresponding maps of where samples were taken.
· Soil sample report forms (in electronic format, i.e. SNAP-Plus) with fields and/or field areas designated (corresponding to the field maps
· Livestock inventory for estimating manure produced; Number of each species and different size classifications
· Manure storage facility size (capacity) estimates
· An estimate of manure application rates in tons or gallons per-acre
· Updated soil conservation plan (this is probably most important down the road for plan development fine-tuning)
The Columbia County Land & Water Conservation Department has received a WI-DATCP Grant that we will be able to use to offer a financial incentive to all program participants who participate and complete a plan. You will be eligible for a $100.00 plan completion stipend per farm. In addition, we will be offering a $2.50 (estimated) per acre soil sampling stipend to all participants who complete a plan, with a maximum of $1,100 per farm. Lunch will be provided for both days. Final stipend payments and soil sampling stipends may increase based on participation and final acres. Once you register, we will provide you with more details and paperwork related to the payments. Some additional NMP specific cost-share funds may become available for 2023 and beyond, and we can discuss that individually with you during the program, because funds are specific to geographic locations in Columbia County.
For more information or to sign up please contact us at (608) 742-9670 or at Land.Conservation@ColumbiaCountyWi.gov