Raising the Bar

Purpose: Raising the Bar is a four-year implementation and research project taking a comprehensive approach to nutrient management on farms, with the goal of improving water quality and soil health at a regional level through adoption of a suite of proven best management practices and innovative technologies.

Project: The goal of Raising the Bar is to improve soil health and water quality on farms through adoption of a suite of best practices and technologies. The first objective is to implement a four-year research project by partnering with well-known area farmers, implementing best practices, and partnering with University of Maryland and Washington College to collect and analyze data and produce a PhD dissertation on the project. The second objective is to conduct outreach to the farming community to spread awareness of these practices and our scientific results and to encourage widespread adoption of these practices.

The project builds upon our previous work in advancing precision application technologies to more effectively apply nutrients to fields and thus reduce nutrient loss to waterways. While that work focused only on fertilizer application practices, the Raising the Bar project combines application best practices with others for a more holistic approach to nutrient management. The suite of practices includes: early cover crop planting in the fall, delayed cover crop killing in the spring, mixed stands of cover crops, seeding versus flying on cover crops, and precision application technology.