Tools and Resources
Find Wisconsin agriculture and water quality tools and resources. Click on the links to access each resource.
Field Walkover Guide: A practical on-farm conservation tool
This Field Walkover Guide created by Discovery Farms is a great tool to assess any landscape for conservation needs. Often, relatively small areas are responsible for the largest portion of soil losses. This guide helps to identify areas vulnerable to erosion and offers solutions to help.
Nitrogen Use Efficiency: A guide to conducting your own assessment
Knowing the efficiency of nitrogen application on a per field basis is the first step in evaluating N fertilizer management. By using the correct amount of nitrogen, it is less likely that excess amounts will run off into surface water or leach to groundwater. This guide will help you take the necessary steps to calculate Nitrogen Use Efficiency on your fields to better understand the best way to manage your N levels.
Wisconsin Manure Management Advisory System
The Runoff Risk Advisory Forecast (RRAF) map can help determine the best time to spread manure. The map displays the runoff risk not just for the current day, but 72 hours into the future based on precipitation, temperature, soil moisture, and landscape characteristics data. This mapping tool allows better planning of manure and other nutrient applications. Manure applied today could runoff with tomorrow’s rain, directly impacting streams, lakes, and groundwater.
Know your watershed – WI watersheds
Where does the water that runs off your field or front yard go? Learn what watershed you live in using this interactive map. By clicking on an area, you can learn details about that watershed.
Web Soil Survey
Interested in learning what type of soil is on your property and what qualities they hold? This interactive map provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world. As you choose a location, you will be able to learn various characteristics about it, from building site development to wildlife management to water quality.
How to sample soil to send in for testing
Testing your soil every year is important to understand what nutrient levels are currently in your soil, and how they are changing over time. Adding the correct amount of nutrients each year is important for cost-effectiveness, plant uptake, and runoff water quality. This resource provides step-by-step instructions and great visuals to help you sample your fields to get the most accurate results.
Well Water Quality Viewer
This interactive tool was created to allow people to better understand groundwater quality in Wisconsin. Almost 900,000 houses rely on private wells for their drinking water, so it’s important to know what potential contaminants are in the groundwater.
Nitrate in Wisconsin’s Public Water Systems
Nitrate is one of the most widespread contaminants in groundwater in Wisconsin. This tool provides trends of nitrate levels in public well systems with historical records and summaries of nitrate trends at state, county, and individual wells.
Water Testing for Homeowners and Private Well Owners
If you have a private well, it’s up to you to monitor what’s in your drinking water! The UW-Stevens Point lab offers multiple testing packages. This site also provides a guide on how to interpret your results, as well as other helpful information about private wells.
How Nitrates and Water Interact (video)
How does nitrate travel through soil? How does nitrate end up in our drinking water? How can we keep it in agriculture fields? This animated video from Practical Farmers of Iowa helps answer these questions.
Nitrate Leaching Calculator
The Nitrate Leaching Calculator uses the conservation of mass to estimate potential nitrate leaching simulations of various management scenarios.
