Nutrient Management Software

The PI’s are Drs. Robert Hill and P. Steinhilber. Support for this project is from a Cooperative Agreement with the Maryland Dept. of Agriculture at a rate of $1,509,948. The duration is from 1999-2008.

The Water Quality Improvement Act of 1998 made nutrient management planning (NMP) mandatory in Maryland for all agricultural operations that apply fertilizers and/or organic wastes with more than 8 animal units weighing more than 1,000 pounds and/or with gross farm receipts greater than $2,500. There was a pressing need for software applications that would allow nutrient management consultants and farmers to effectively complete nutrient management plans.

The UMD College of Agriculture & Natural Resources entered into a cooperative agreement with the Maryland Department of Agriculture to develop these software applications with the formation of the UMD Nutrient Management Software Laboratory. Nutrient Management for Maryland (NuMan MD) software program is Windows ® based nutrient management planning (NMP) software that was released in December 2001. The software was updated with the release of Nutrient Management for Maryland, Professional Edition (NuMan Pro) in April 2005 that serves as an updated and integrated version of the Nutrient Management for Maryland (NuMan MD) software program and the Maryland Phosphorus Site Index (PSI) software program. NuMan Pro facilitates the use of organic wastes and fertilizers to meet crop needs in an efficient and easy to use manner. The software presents an integrated software solution including components for nutrient management planning, animal waste generation, waste utilization and balance components, phosphorus loss risk assessment, and calculation of estimated soil erosion losses. Software development has emphasized a user interface that is simple and easy-to-use.

The software calculates fertilizer and nutrient recommendations for over 250 crop/management scenarios (forage, vegetable, row crops, fruit crops, etc.), has over 240 crop/management informational notes, and mineralization rates for 28 types of organic wastes. All nutrient management planning information previously only available in numerous books and tables can be easily addressed and incorporated into the planning process from drop-down menu choices. All nutrient management planning calculations can, therefore, be quickly performed with the click of a few buttons. The software has a waste balance component that calculates waste storage requirements considering both the timing that waste materials will be used within the nutrient management plan and the rate of waste production. A waste generation component will estimate manure production for almost any animal production system including specialized cake and clean-out modules for the poultry industry and confined / unconfined animal feeding operations such as in the beef/dairy industry. The combination of components within NuMan Pro provides the user with the capabilities to meet the federal nutrient management requirements for confined animal feeding operations (CAFO). Even though simple to use, NuManPro is a complicated computer program composed of over 7,000 pages of source code (over 350,000 lines of source code) and represents a technological achievement that has no equal.

The nutrient management planning software has been used by the MCE Nutrient Management Program for nutrient management planning on over 450,000 acres of Maryland cropland. The total number of acres for implementation is even larger if use by industry, private consultants, and certified farmers is considered. The software allows farmers to become certified and complete their nutrient management plans with a small amount of training from the MCE Nutrient Management Program.

The Nutrient Management Software Laboratory released Nutrient Management Reporter software in April 2007 that facilitates the completion of Annual Implementation Reports for nutrient management planning. We are currently working with MDA to develop Oracle database and web delivery products for the electronic submission of Annual Implementation Reports to the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

For more information, contact Dr. Robert Hill

Last updated: 02/7/2008