JM Innovations



National & World Ag News Headlines
Minnesota to Regulate Nitrogen Fertilizer Application
USAgNet - 04/16/2019

Minnesota is poised to regulate commercial nitrogen fertilizer for the first time ever next year. After over two years of debate, revisions, and political struggle, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's (MDA) nitrogen fertilizer rule is on track to be approved this May and take effect on January 1, 2020, reports Winonapost.

"Clean, safe, reliable water in our communities is everyone's concern and everyone's responsibility," former Democratic Governor Mark Dayton said of the rule his administration first proposed in 2017. To reduce nitrate pollution in streams and well water, Minnesota has regulated how much manure farmers may apply to fields for years. The state has used many voluntary and educational programs to minimize pollution from synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, but Minnesota has never imposed hard and fast limits on how farmers use commercial fertilizer until now.

The nitrogen fertilizer rule has two parts. First, in areas of the state with vulnerable groundwater - including most of Southeast Minnesota - or where public wells are contaminated with nitrates, the rule would ban farmers from applying nitrogen fertilizer in the fall or when the ground is frozen.

Second, the rule requires farmers in areas surrounding public wells - called drinking water supply management areas (DWSMAs) - to use nitrogen fertilizer best management practices (BMPs) if the nitrate pollution levels in those wells get close to the state health limit.

That limit is 10 micrograms per liter, and the second part of the rule includes a system of progressive requirements that gets stricter as nitrate pollution in nearby wells worsens. When nitrate levels reach eight micrograms per liter and above, the MDA would order farmers to follow BMPs or other practices intended to reduce nitrogen pollution. Those orders could restrict farmers from applying more nitrogen than the University of Minnesota (U of M) guidelines recommend.

Both farmers and environmentalists criticized the proposed rule, with some saying that it was unnecessary regulation and others stating that it did not go far enough.


Other National Headlines
Real Wisconsin Cheese Curds
Meyer Manufacturing
Copyright © 2024 - Farms.com. All Rights Reserved.