Asset 14

Easily evaluate the impacts of field-level best management practices on farm scale phosphorus (P) loss reductions and identify modifications to achieve water quality improvement targets on the watershed-scale.

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Stone Environmental developed the Farm Phosphorus Reduction Planner (Farm-PREP), an integrated web-based application, to help farmers, technical crop consultants, and stakeholders easily evaluate the impacts of field-level best management practices on farm scale phosphorus (P) loss reductions and identify modifications to their field operations to help achieve water quality improvement targets on the watershed-scale.

Farm-PREP brings the power of the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service’s farm-scale water quality model, the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender model (APEX), to a much broader audience through a streamlined and user-friendly user interface allowing for evaluation of thousands of farm management scenarios. The tool integrates agronomic and hydrologic science, numerical modeling, and web-based application development that is packed with science and engineering on the back-end, yet elegant and intuitive on the user-facing front end.

Users can quickly sketch their farm fields using the application drawing tool or they can upload an Esri compatible shapefile of their farm fields.

The APEX model is a physically-based agronomic and water quality model designed for simulations at the field to farm/small watershed scale. With this tool, farmers can effectively and efficiently identify modifications to their field operations in order to meet a target reduction in P leaving the farm and help to achieve water quality improvement goals at the watershed scale.

Stone has an established relationship with the developers of the APEX model at the USDA Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple, TX. Beyond this project, Stone has frequently assisted with model testing and parameterization efforts in order to continuously improve the model. Specifically, Stone has worked to refine the parameterization of Vermont best management practices to more accurately model typical practices on Vermont dairy farms. The Farm-PREP user interface provides the first streamlined, user friendly interface to APEX, making it accessible to farmers, crop consultants, and others.

Users provide current crop rotations and agronomic practices, and Farm-PREP generates model simulations of multiple combinations of field practices to arrive at a farm-level plan that meets pre-determined farm phosphorous reduction targets.

The Farm-PREP tool is currently being expanded throughout the state of Vermont and is being enhanced to include additional field-level management practices and consideration of alternative nutrient management technologies. The implementation of this tool will lead to a substantially more quantitative and targeted approach to implementing improvements in farm agronomic practices that meet water quality objectives required to satisfy the Lake Champlain P Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL).

Farm-PREP is ready for expansion into other agricultural regions of the United States. Stone’s team of environmental modelers, hydrologists, and application developers will work with you to develop appropriate crop rotation and agricultural practice inputs for your region. Farm-PREP will provide you with a consistent, defensible approach to decision-making and quantifying environmental sustainability benefits.

http://www.stone-env.com

Farm-PREP was funded (in part) by an agreement awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency to the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission in partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program. NEIWPCC manages LCBP’s personnel, contract, grant, and budget tasks and provides input on the program’s activities through a partnership with the LCBP Steering Committee.

Although the information in application has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection agency under agreement LC00A00134to NEIWPCC, it has not undergone the Agency’s publications review process and therefore, may not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred. The viewpoints expressed here do not necessarily represent those of NEIWPCC, the LCBP Steering Committee, or EPA, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or causes constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.