The Farming for the Blue River project is a partnership between the Little Blue Natural Resources District (NRD), Lower Big Blue NRD, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Nature Conservancy.
The goal of this project is to co-learn with farmers to develop nutrient management plans to reduce nitrogen losses and improve nitrogen use efficiency.
Project partners will work with farmers to create a nutrient management plan in line with the plant’s nitrogen needs, provide farmers technical assistance in adopting precision nutrient management, and participation in a peer-to-peer learning network to scale practices regionally.
Farmers can enroll up to 160 acres per year, up to three years, and will receive $10/acre per year for each acre enrolled in the program. Additional financial assistance is available for annual soil sampling throughout the timeline of the project to inform the revised nutrient management plan. Additionally, the Farming for the Blue River partners encourage farmers to layer additional cost-share incentives by enrolling in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) with NRCS.
Interested parties can contact Tyler Goeschel at Little Blue NRD at tgoeschel@littlebluenrd.org or call at 402-364-3172. Signing up is easy and I’ll happily assist you!