Best Management Practices (BMPs)

The future of farming depends on our ability to maintain our natural resources - such as soil, water, and air. The LENRD offers assistance with Best Management Practices (BMPs) for nitrogen fertilizer, irrigation, pesticides, livestock waste, and windbreaks to help prevent degradation of our water resources by agricultural practices. 

BMPs focus on management of inputs to provide for economic, environmental and agronomic efficiency in agriculture. Examples of BMPs include practices for managing nitrogen application, irrigation, livestock wastes, and pesticides. Vegetative and tillage practices, such as contour farming, cropping sequence and windbreaks and structural practices, such as terraces, grade stabilization and sediment control basins are other good examples of best management practices.

Problems occur when nutrients from fertilizers and animal wastes are applied to farmland in quantities that exceed the amount used by the crop or the amount that can be held by the soil. Those excess nutrients can runoff into bodies of surface water or leach through the soil to the groundwater. Effective nutrient management, in terms of application rates and timing, can reduce the potential for such pollution.

BMP Programs:

 

Conservation Cost Share Program

50% Cost Share On:

  • Grade Stabilization Dams/Water Impoundment Reservoirs
  • New Terrace Systems - may include any terrace types with outlets listed in federal and state dockets, but is limited to five cubic yards of fill per linear foot of terrace (unless prior approval is given by NRD)
  • Waterways without Terraces or existing Terraces - if operator is in compliance with conservation farm plan and soil loss is at acceptable limits of Nebraska Erosion & Sediment Control Act
  • Water & Sediment Control Basins and Outlets - if operator is in compliance with conservation farm plan and soil loss is at or less than eight tons per acre. Cost share is limited to 10 cubic yards of dirt per linear foot of basins.
  • Terrace Rebuilds
  • Planned Grazing Systems (rotational grazing) - 40 acre minimum. Includes wells, tanks, grass seeding, pipelines and interior cross fences, fences around expired CRP fields
  • Seeding on highly erodible crop land
  • Rehabilitating dams (not dredging)
  • Necessary extension of tile outlets for terraces or water and sediment control basins (if recommended by NRCS to solve an erosion problem
  • Irrigation Water Management on existing irrigation systems including: re-nozzling pivots, and soil moisture sensors. Limit of $5,000 of District funds available to any one individual/entity per fiscal year
  • Variable Rate Irrigation Conservation and corresponding Variable Frequency Drives are eligible utilizing NSWCP funds and meeting NRCS practice standards

Cost Share Supplement with EQIP:

  • EQIP participants receiving cost share may apply for supplemental NRD cost share and receive up to 75% total funding between EQIP and District Funds. **Applicants MUST BE approved for LENRD cost share prior to beginning construction
  • LENRD Supplemental Cost Share will expire, in combination with EQIP, after December 31st of the calendar year after EQIP approval, if the practice is not completed (ex. a producer is approved for EQIP cost share on terraces in March 2024. He would have until December 31, 2025 (21 months), to complete the project and receive the approved percentage of cost share). No partial payments will be made
  • Conservation projects may not be cost shared with the Lower Elkhorn NRD funds if they are ineligible for EQIP funding because of non-compliance with the Federal Farm Program

Cost Share Supplement with CSP:

  • CSP participants receiving cost share may apply for supplemental NRD cost share and receive up to 55% total funding between CSP and District Funds. **Applicants MUST BE approved for LENRD cost share prior to beginning construction
  • LENRD Supplemental Cost Share will expire, in combination with CSP, after December 31st of the calendar year after CSP approval, if the practice is not completed. (Ex. A producer is approved for CSP cost share on a waterway in March 2024. He would have until December 31, 2025 (21 months), to complete the project and receive the approved percentage of cost share). **No partial payments will be made.

Incentive Programs

Buffer Strip Program

Buffer strips are a common sense approach to land conservation. This program pays landowners for using filter strips (narrow strips of grass) or riparian forest buffer strips (strips containing trees and grass). 

Cover Crop Program

Cover crops prevent erosion, improve soil's physical and biological properties, supply nutrients, suppress weeds, improve the availability of soil water, and break pest cycles along with various other benefits. 

Convert Irrigated Cropland to Irrigated Grazing Land

Vegetative Practices with CRP continuous signup (Reserve $20,000 until July 1)

Nutrient Management Incentive

Chemigation Cost Share

Domestic Well Treatment System Cost Share

Soil Moisture Sensor Incentive Lease Program

 

Lands for Conservation

This program provides landowners with an incentive to construct conservation structures on the land during the growing season. Application period January 1 through April 1. 

  1. The area under contract will be the smallest practical area to encompass the practices, as agreed upon with the cooperator. Payment is $250 per acre.
  2. Construction must be done between April 1 and September 15. The field must be available for construction by August 1. The field may be planted to cover or a crop preceding or after construction. The crop or cover may be harvested or pastured during the contract period

Practices Eligible:

  • Terraces
  • Water and sediment control basins
  • Waterways
  • Tile outlets as part of erosion control system

 

  1. The Lands for Conservation program will be on contractual basis between the landowner (cooperator) and the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District for one year while conservation practices are being established. Applications will be accepted beginning in January at your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office.
  2. Terraces with grassed waterways and terraces with tile outlets qualify for this program. Terraces and waterways must be seeded during the contract period.
  3. NRCS personnel will design terraces with waterways or tile drains. These practices must protect the entire field on which they are established. However, the area under contract will be the smallest practical area to encompass the practices, as agreed upon with the cooperator.
  4. Land in another program that idles crop production may not be included in Lands for Conservation contracts.
  5. Terraces with waterways or tile outlets may be cost-shared through the EQIP program administered by Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).  If these funds are not available or if the total cost is too high, cost-sharing assistance can be obtained through the LENRD's Conservation Cost-Share Program.
  6. Construction must be done between April 1 and September 15.  The field must be available for construction by August 1.  The field may be planted to cover or a crop preceding or after construction.  The crop or cover may be harvested or pastured during the contract period.  Payment is $100 per acre.
  7. Land under this contract must be farmed on the contour. If used for permanent pasture after the contract period, money received through this program must be returned. Land can be used for hayland as a normal part of the crop rotation.
  8. If ownership of land changes during the contract period, the contract becomes void. The new owner may continue the contract, if agreed to with the Lower Elkhorn NRD.
  9. The application period is January 1 through April 1. Approval of contracts will begin February 1 on a rotating basis.
  10. Land contracted must be part of an NRCS developed conservation plan for the entire farm and must require terraces to meet the permissible soil loss under the Nebraska Erosion and Sediment Control Act. A conservation system must also be carried out.
  11. The landowner will contract for the construction of terraces, waterways, tile outlets and any other necessary construction.
  12. Terraces, waterways and tile outlets must be maintained for 10 years or as long as the current owner has control of the land, whichever is less.              

For assistance in applying, contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office.

 

Policy for use of NSWCP funds

State cost share funds (NWSCP) will not be obligated until after the legislative session (in case the program is reduced).