▶ 2026 Nitrogen Optimization Pilot Program Overview

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Thank you, Grace.

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Good afternoon, everyone.

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As mentioned, my name is Megan Blauwet.

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I work with UW–Madison Extension as the Nitrogen Management Outreach Specialist.

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And today I’m here to talk to you about the nitrogen optimization pilot program or what I’m going to call NOPP.

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So today, I’ll start by going through our program goals and give you a bit of background and then we’ll dive into some lessons from on farm research, including some insights into some of our cover crop and manure projects.

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And then I’ll be ending with some funding opportunities available in ways for you to get involved yourself.

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To start off, what is NOPP?

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For those who are not familiar, NOPP is a grant program that supports Wisconsin farmers to optimize commercial nitrogen use.

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So we have 4 primary goals with this program.

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First is to answer producer specific nitrogen research questions.

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So these are on farm trials with the goal of improving nitrogen management and nitrogen use efficiency.

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Through doing that, we can also work to improve producer profitability and reduce nitrates in surface and groundwater.

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So to also give you an idea of the scope of the program, here is a map of the state of Wisconsin with all of the trials that have taken place so far.

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So NOPP began in 2023 or at least the first on farm trials went out that season.

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So we are now in our fourth year of on farm trials.

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And you can see all the the yellow dots in this map are trials that have been completed and the blue ones are ones that are currently out there or some of them may have recently been harvested.

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But to give you just kind of an overview of what’s happened, since the beginning of this program, we have had $4.4 million awarded to 123 farmers along with their 100 collaborators.

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So we highly encourage collaboration.

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Farmers can apply themselves.

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They can also apply with other farmers, especially in, you know, producer led watershed groups, or they can work with their agronomist, independent crop consultants, the county conservation or extension or others.

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So we love to see collaborators involved in these projects as well.

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So there have been 64 unique projects involving 211 trials total.

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So as I mentioned, each project can have multiple farmers, but also we require that these trials last for at least two years or that you repeat them for a minimum of two years, partly due to, you know, nitrogen itself being inherently variable and dependent on the weather and year.

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So we would love to see them last longer, but we require two years.

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But we’ve had 211 trials spanning a range of different crops.

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Majority has been corn grain, but we have had some in silage, potatoes, cranberry, sunflowers, quite a range.

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And the trials primarily focus on finding the optimum nitrogen rate, but they also can explore different management impacts such as cover crops and manure, which I’ll be talking about more today.

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But with all this great research and data being collected out in the state, we have had 118 outreach events to share more about NOPP as a program and what we’ve been seeing with these projects.

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So if you want to find more information, there is this QR code and you can type in that that text to find our website.

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But, you know, we we of course, work with the farmers and collaborators themselves and collect the data with them and analyze it, report it back to them to answer their questions.

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But then we share it at field days, you know, local meetings and events.

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And then also at a broader scale, you know, at at conferences, webinars and things like that.

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But what does you know, NOPP allows farmers to investigate their own research questions.

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What does that look like?

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Well, it looks quite different for every single project.

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These are just some examples of the trial designs and I show these just to emphasize that we can work, you know, with the farmers to to work on their fields with their equipment and make something fit their operation.

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So there is a couple things in common, even though these all look quite different, is that we’re setting different nitrogen rates out on the fields and there are replications.

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So we are having really great sound research happening.

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And if you’re curious just about the projects themselves, the farmers that have been awarded these grants and how they got involved, what they’re interested in, we do post project spotlights.

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You can also see where they’re at and some pictures there.

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So if you’re interested in reading that, we will be posting more of those as well.

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We love to feature the great people that are doing great work across the state.

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So with all of these unique projects, they do have a common outcome.

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We get these nitrogen response curves.

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So what this is, is looking at your different synthetic nitrogen rates on the X axis and looking at yield on the Y axis.

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So from this, the yield response, you’re able to to graph that and fit a curve to the points.

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So with, with all the different, you know, replications and the points, we’re able to find the AONR and the EONR.

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So the AONR it’s the agronomic optimal nitrogen rate.

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That is the rate that maximizes yield. Whereas the EONR is the economic optimal nitrogen rates and that is the rate that maximizes profit.

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So that EONR takes into account the price of corn and the price of nitrogen fertilizer.

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So you know, at some point you might be adding more fertilizer and getting a, a slight yield gain, but it’s not paying off.

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So we recommend the most profitable rate which is the EONR.

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With this data, we can also calculate another metric called unused nitrogen fertilizer.

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So this we can do largely because of the 0 nitrogen test strips that are out there and showing what the soil itself can provide and without any synthetic fertilizer.

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And then with all the additional rates of of nitrogen added, we can then see you know the difference between what the crop is taking up and what is left after that.

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So that is the the unused nitrogen fertilizer.

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This really shows, you know, especially visually as you’re looking past the EONR that unused for lies or increases quite, quite substantially.

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So not only, you know, if you’re applying above that optimum nitrogen rate, you’re becoming less profitable, but you’re also increasing your risk to the environment.

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So finding and identifying your optimum nitrogen rate is a really great goal of of the majority of these projects.

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These projects can also investigate different management impacts, so you can have multiple curves like this for one project to look at something like rye.

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So rye cover crop and nitrogen management has been, you know, a very big question with multiple farmers.

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And so we decided to try to summarize some of the data that has taken place looking at, you know, a rye cover crop with no rye cover crop and then nitrogen impacts with that.

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So what are some considerations with the rye cover crop?

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Well, there are pros and cons right there.

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There’s many reasons why farmers might want to have a rye cover crop out there, including nitrogen scavenging.

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So having that cover crop in the season where you’re not having your main cash crop to try to take up some of that and, and reduce your nitrogen loss in shoulder seasons.

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And then also erosion control.

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You know, there’s many other benefits not listed here as well, but there are some big concerns, right?

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You know, some previous trials have shown the risk of yield drag, the risk of greater nitrogen requirements and then farmers are often worried about the moisture with the rye cover crop taking that up from the corn.

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So what better way to investigate that than some NOPP on farm trials?

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So what we have seen, we’ve seen that how you manage rye matters.

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We have had 11 site years from 2023 to 2025 spanning a range of different counties across the state.

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And we’ve seen that 7 of 11 of those sites with the rye cover crop did not experience yield drag or greater nitrogen requirement compared to that no rye cover crop.

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So over half of them did not have that yield drag or greater nitrogen requirement.

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So we kind of wanted to dive into that deeper and kind of maybe pull apart reasons why it didn’t or reasons why it didn’t.

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But first I want to mention that, you know, weather plays a big role.

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Many of you, especially if you’re a farm and have rye, you know this already, but just want to make sure I point that out.

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Weather can maybe trump all of these things.

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And there’s a lot of variability across sites.

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You know, there’s not only across the state, different regions, different soils, but the, the management across the sites varies quite a bit, which allows us to look into multiple different things.

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So we’re able to maybe find some factors that can reduce your risk of having that yield drag or that greater nitrogen requirements, and then also some factors that might increase your risk of that yield drag or greater nitrogen requirement.

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So starting off with what could reduce your risk, one thing that we found was manure.

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So and just to emphasize these projects we’re looking at rye versus no rye, but some of the farmers’ normal management was to apply manure in the spring and we found that, you know, that could be very beneficial.

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It might reduce your risk of a yield drag because none of the, none of the four sites that had that yield drag had any manure applied or any manure history, whereas many of the seven sites did have that and we saw some, some benefit to that.

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Another thing we’re, we’re thinking of is maybe split nitrogen applications could reduce your risk.

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Again, those, those four sites that had that yield drag, all of them apply their nitrogen at plant.

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And so we, we think there might be something to, you know, having nitrogen down early in the season, but also maybe supplementing throughout the season.

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So that’s just something something we noticed and need to investigate a bit more.

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Otherwise, cover crop history, you know, not only just having that that rye growing in your soils and and working with your microbiome, getting used to that, but also just farmers’ management.

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I mean, the more years you grow rye, you probably learn something every year, adjusting it better.

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So having more familiarity and more history with cover crops could reduce your risk for those negative impacts.

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But now some things that might increase your risk and these might not be surprising to many of you, but the first would be higher amounts of biomass, so reaching above 2000 lbs of dry matter per acre.

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And along with you know maybe those higher C to N ratios could increase your risk of yield drag or greater nitrogen requirement. Along with terminating that rye cover crop at or after planting which kind of you know hand in hand there with each other.

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But I will mention, and this is why I first had manure as a factor that could reduce risk, is even in some sites where we saw really high biomass amounts and terminating at plants, they had spring manure applied and they still did not see that yield drag.

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So we think that that is definitely something we want to look into more.

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It was pretty significant to see otherwise.

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Just to end with factors that will increase your risk would be of course slow spring rainfall.

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So moisture concerns are definitely something to consider.

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So this is what we were able to, you know, just kind of look at and tease apart with these 11 different sites.

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But of course, you know, more data would be better.

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We want to see this for multiple more years, different weather and different management.

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And we do have more trials currently out there right now investigating just this.

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So we’re very excited to continue diving into this deeper.

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But as I mentioned, you know, the benefit of manure in these cover crop trials, there are also many farmers that were interested in manure itself.

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So how can we capture the value of manure

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nitrogen? Manure itself is a very valuable source of nitrogen.

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There’s a lot of manure in the state.

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So how can we use it?

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It gives you an opportunity to reduce your synthetic nitrogen.

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It’s got a lot of benefits.

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I mean, you can become more profitable, you know, by finding your right amount of nitrogen, you can reduce your risk of, of water quality and, and things like that.

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But available nitrogen in manure is variable.

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It depends on a lot of things, depends on the the source, the application method, application timing, weather and other site specific factors.

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So how can you figure out or know what your manure provides?

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But one way as Brendan actually mentioned is book values, right?

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His first slide was, was looking at different estimated availabilities from different manure types.

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And so that would be a great starting point.

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It separates by the manure like poultry or beef, dairy manure and you’re able to get an estimation of what would be what would be there.

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But there is large ranges, right?

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So we recommend sending a sample off to the lab.

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The lab results can give you more, more accurate to your own manure values that can estimate the available nitrogen and other nutrients that you have.

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But of course, the best way to figure out what your manure can provide would be to do on farm trials.

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So on farm research, you know, really helps you know what’s happening on your own farm and can lead to enhanced or better decision making yourself.

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So many farmers through NOPP were curious about how manure impacts optimal nitrogen rates for corn compared to no manure.

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So we had 10 site years investigating just this from 2023 to 2025, again spanning a range of different counties across the state, some of them looking at poultry letters, some hog manure, solid beef, solid and liquid dairy.

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So a range of different sources, range of applications.

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We had a daily haul, surface applied was the majority of them.

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Low disturbance injection was one in the timing range quite a bit as well.

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They’re all more kind of in that spring range from February to June with the majority of them being applied at plant or in that that May time frame.

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And then the available nitrogen and manure.

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So for these projects, they they test the manure and based on the application methods, the available nitrogen range from 34 to 168 lbs of nitrogen per acre.

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So quite a span of different, different sources, methods and everything like that.

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But if we try to summarize them and put them together, what we see is that manure benefits depend on management and field conditions.

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So we saw that 8 of the 10 sites experienced a yield bump with manure compared to no manure.

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That yield bump did range quite a bit from, you know, as low as 5 to up to 103 bushels per acre with the average being around 40 bushels an acre greater yields than with no manure on average.

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So we also you know can look at the nitrogen crediting available and we had four of the six sites have a measurable nitrogen credit.

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So when you’re looking at this, you might think well, what about those two sites, right.

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Why did they not have a credit or yield bump?

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And that’s a great question.

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I can give you a little bit more details on these sites.

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So one of them was poultry litter and it had a long history of manure.

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It was the plot itself was right next to where one of the old barns was.

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So it kind of has that soil build up there and it was non responsive to additional nitrogen.

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The other one was the daily haul dairy manure and that was applied in early spring and compared to you know this, this trial was repeated the next year and we didn’t see or I guess we did see that yield bump and measurable nitrogen credit, but that was applied right before plants or around in May.

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So maybe something about that early spring.

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But also the fields themselves were different.

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So this one had a organic matter of around 3% in this field.

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And the next year in 2025, the field that saw a response had only about 1.6% organic matter.

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So that was just one case that we saw.

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You know, in looking at these other sites, we think that fields with that lower organic matter or overall lower fertility are more likely to see a greater response to manure.

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And the same thing with this, this poultry litter one, that one had really good overall fertility as well.

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So we think that you might be less likely to see, see these benefits with manure and maybe less likely to see the, the greater responses.

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But to emphasize, you know, these are just preliminary results.

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We only have 10 sites so far.

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There’s, there’s more out there this year.

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Hope to again see more, more data will always be better.

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So projects and the analysis are ongoing.

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I know there’s so many other things we we can look at with manure and all the other factors and we will continue to do so and continue to share it.

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But this is what we have kind of found so far with, with these sites.

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So hopefully, if you’re paying attention, you’ve noticed that these, these projects highlight that no two fields, no two farms, growing seasons are the same, you know, so every trial tells a unique story and there is a lot of value in collective learning across these NOPP sites.

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So though, although everything is so different between these trials, trying to bring them together and summarize them is really, really valuable.

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What we found with the the rye cover crop trials is to make sure you consider your biomass, your termination timing, the weather and and manure.

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They can all influence when you see a yield drag or increase nitrogen fertilizer need with manure itself, considering the source, the application, weather and other management factors to optimize your your manure nitrogen and be able to start fine tuning your synthetic fertilizer.

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So it’s important to consider your site specific factors and management to optimize nitrogen.

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So it sounds like everybody needs to, to test this on their own farm.

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It’s just amazing because we have opportunities for you to do so.

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So if you’re interested in this, if you, you know, if you saw that map at the beginning and you see a lot of white space around where you’re at.

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If, if you’re seeing some of this data and it brings up more questions, you can test this yourself.

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We have $1,000,000 of funding available to, to go to projects that will be starting next year.

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So this is something you can really, really get involved with and test on your own farm.

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I do want to take just a little bit to go through the project options because we do have some new, new options available this year.

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But first we have the nitrogen response trial.

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This is what I’ve been talking about.

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This is where the majority of the projects are identifying your optimum nitrogen rates.

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You can also investigate different management impacts with this.

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This is the data that contributes to statewide nitrogen database which which can inform the nitrogen guidelines.

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And then for this you have to have 4 to 8 nitrogen

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rates depending on if you have that management option.

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And you have to have 4 replications.

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And so the maximum grant award for for this option would be $40,000 per producer.

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And as mentioned, you can have multiple producers per grant.

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So if you want to work together with multiple people, your total award can be greater, but it’s it’s maximum $40,000 per producer.

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We are also offering a, you know, simpler assessment.

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This is just looking at a 0 synthetic nitrogen test strip.

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So I mentioned before how important this test strip is and you’re able to see how much nitrogen in your soil is able to supply and how much you can yield without any synthetic fertilizer.

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You can also calculate many different indicators include including nitrogen use efficiency.

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So with this, we just require two test strips with 0 synthetic nitrogen and you can compare that to your normal and this can include organic nitrogen sources.

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So if you you apply manure and you want to test 0 synthetic nitrogen, this would be a great fit for you as well.

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And this is a maximum grant award of $6000 per producer.

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We are also offering reduced nitrogen rate as an option.

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So if you’re just interested, if you can reduce your nitrogen rates a bit without any yield loss, it’d be something really easy to implement and learn from.

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We just require 3 reduced nitrogen rate strips of 20% less than your current rate.

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And that one would also give you a maximum grant award of $6000 per producer.

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And lastly, we, we do have this whole other bucket of custom nitrogen research.

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So none of these sound like quite what you want to do or don’t answer the questions that you have.

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We want to hear from you.

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We want to hear what other, you know, innovative strategies there are out there to optimize nitrogen use.

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So with that, this is my final slide.

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I encourage everyone to investigate nitrogen on your farm or with the farms that you work with.

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And we have applications opening next week.

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So this is, you know, don’t lose sight of this.

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If you’re interested, reach out now.

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Look at this QR code.

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You know, look up this is just on DATCP’s website, NOPP.

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You just want to Google that. Applications are open and we have the intent to apply will be due December 18th.

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So that’s where you can just submit.

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You know who you are, what you’re interested in doing, and we can also

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work with you throughout this process and making sure that your research design can answer the question you’re interested in.

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And then the final applications will be due in January of 2027 with projects starting that year.

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So here’s my contact information.

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You know, feel free to reach out with questions if you don’t want to type in the chat here or if you’re interested in applying or have any questions at all.

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But I’ll, I’ll take any questions now if there are some.