Division of Extension
In April 2026, commercial nitrogen fertilizer prices increased approximately 30% since fall 2025. Fortunately, there are nutrient management choices farmers can make to minimize financial impacts of this sudden price increase.
In this webinar, speakers will share approaches and tools for measuring and understanding nitrate leaching and water budgets.
The webinar speakers will share data that compares cover crop seeding rate to find what rate is needed for water quality and soil health benefits.
Can we find a nitrogen rate that balances yield, profitability, and water quality?
There are several common ways to quantify nitrate leaching. Each method has different benefits and tradeoffs in terms of data accuracy, equipment needed, and time and labor requirements.
Lindsey Hartfiel explores how nitrogen moves through soil and water systems, the impact of agricultural practices, and the importance of data-driven decision-making to mitigate nitrogen leaching.
Dr. Steven Hall, assistant professor and extension cropping systems and water quality specialist, explores how nitrate leaching responds to nitrogen inputs from both synthetic fertilizer and manure in Wisconsin cropping systems.
Dr. Steven Hall, Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, and Guolong Liang, Agriculture Water Quality Outreach Specialist, discuss water quality impacts under different crop rotations in Wisconsin.
Dr. Lindsey Hartfiel, Discovery Farms Research Program Manager, and Kelsey Hyland, Agriculture Water Quality Outreach Specialist, discuss nitrate leaching.
Nitrogen (N) is at the center of agronomy, climate change, and water quality conversations. Farms are striving to achieve higher yields and quality while reducing emissions and leaching losses by improving their nitrogen use efficiency.
How do we optimize the use of commercial nitrogen and reduce nitrate leaching? Guolong Liang, agriculture water quality outreach specialist, and Monica Schauer, research director for NOPP, discuss the importance of nitrogen optimization and the strategies to reduce nitrate leaching. Learn about how agronomic results and water quality impacts connect with lessons from an on-farm trial from the Nitrogen Optimization Pilot Program (NOPP) from 2023.
In this article, we will discuss the presence of nitrate in irrigation water and opportunities to budget nitrogen in irrigation, to make farms more efficient in using nitrogen and reduce over-fertilization which in turn will protect groundwater.
