Nutrient Plan Reviewers Hone Skills
(Continued from Page 10)
Workshop participants from conservations dis
tricts across Pennsylvania reviewed an actual nu
trient management plan to identify inconsistencies,
incomplete information, and other flaws in the plan.
The detailed exercise was part of the process of
learning hoVv to make sure livestock producers with
concentrated livestock operations submit final
plans that are complete and accurate.
“Some of these.plans take three or four revisions
before they’re ready to present to the board,” Good
lander said.
After a nutrient management plan is first submit
ted, reviewers have 90 days to work with the pro
ducer to ensure the plan is ready.
According to Sautter, nutrient management plan
ning is an ongoing process.
“It is constantly being refined,” he said. “It’s the
science of it that changes.”
Reviewers must also take orientation and plan
writing workshops and pass an environmental
knowledge examination in order to be provisionally
certified. After satisfactorily reviewing two nutrient
management plans, they receive full certification.
Soil fertility and manure management workshops
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are also “highly recommended,” Sautter said.
Pennsylvania’s Nutrient Management Act
(NMA) is in the process of being revised by the SCC,
along with the input of a state nutrient management
advisory board consisting of farmers, agribusi
nessoersons, conservation planners, scientists, and
representatives of state agencies, including the
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Pro
tection, Final draft revisions are expected to be
ready for legislative consideration by early in 2004,
according to Goodlander.
Key changes proposed in the NMA draft include
incorporating a phosphorus index (P-index), requir
ing verification of conservation plans prior to nu
trient management plan approval, certification of
commercial manure exporters, and additional re
strictions on manure storage and application.
Concerning phosphorus-based nutrient manage
ment, an initial review of about 500 fields on 11
farms (with both low and high concentrations of
livestock) in the state showed about 20 percent of
the fields will require phosphorus management, ac
cording to Goodlander.
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