Conservation Training
Difm.farm: A Tool to Improve NRCS’s Nutrient Management (CPS 590) Practice
September 25, 2025
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Location: Virtual
From 2020 to 2025, the NRCS-CIG On-farm Trials program provided funding to the Data-Intensive Farm Management Project to develop the now-publicly accessible difm.farm online cyber-infrastructure (“tool”). Difm.farm is currently enabling farmers and their advisors to conduct hundreds of full-field on-farm precision experiments, then automatedly process, manage, and analyze the resultant data and write reports on the practical management implications of the analysis. The presentation will propose a method of using the difm.farm tool to improve the operation of the NRCS Nutrient Management Conservation Practice Standard 590, making it possible to fairly compensate but not over-compensate farmers for reducing nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer application rates. NRCS Technical Service Providers will work with farmers, using difm.farm to create, implement, and efficiently monitor farmer compliance with rate-reducing fertilizer application plans. The plan would help NRCS to meet many challenges faced by current elements of CPS 590, including the use of often-ill-suited land-grant university “best management practice” recommendation algorithms.