Category: In the News

Advanced Nutrient Management Vouchers Available

Posted on by Jenell McHenry | Posted in 4Rs on the Farm, Funding, In the NewsTagged , , , , , Leave a Comment on Advanced Nutrient Management Vouchers Available

“Are you ready to take your farm to the next level for yield and efficiency?”

(Chester, Maryland, February 10, 2025) – For the 2025 growing season, farmers and trusted advisers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed have the opportunity to work together and plan advanced nutrient management practices. A $1,000 planning voucher from the Mid-Atlantic Stewardship Association is available to support an advisor and farmer’s time to work together and develop next steps to meet their specific farm goals.

Vouchers are paid directly to the trusted advisor to assist a farmer with planning including data management and compilation, analysis of existing data, collecting new data/soil tests, etc. to plan next steps. Enrolled fields must have a current nutrient management plan or meet NRCS Core Nutrient Management requirements in Pennsylvania.

Example practices include nitrogen modeling, precision fertilizer recommendations, generating field zones, and data management to name a few. No implementation is required, only proof of your plan and a follow-up interview to share how the funds supported your goals.

There are 10 of 30 vouchers still available on a first-come, first-served basis and an additional two vouchers for historically underserved farmers valued at $1,250. Enrollment forms are due no later than March 14th for the 2025 growing season.

In 2024, we provided 30 vouchers with great success and funding from the Keith Campbell Foundation. You can hear from the 4R team and participating agribusiness about the vouchers here. 

Learn more about this year’s programs online here.

4R Partnership Continues to Grow Across the Mid-Atlantic

Posted on by 4RMidAtlantic | Posted in In the NewsTagged , , , , , , ,

Ensuring every nutrient application in the Mid-Atlantic is applied with the RIGHT source, in the RIGHT place, at the RIGHT rate, and at the RIGHT time.

(Chester, Maryland, December 23, 2024) – In March 2024, the Mid-Atlantic 4R Nutrient Stewardship Association (MA4R), the nonprofit organization supporting the Pennsylvania 4R Alliance (PA4R) and the Delaware Maryland 4R Alliance (DM4R), completed a five-year Strategic Plan to make a big impact across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The mission of the 4R Alliance is to empower trusted advisors to ensure that every nutrient application in the region is applied with the RIGHT source, in the RIGHT place, at the RIGHT rate, and at the RIGHT time to benefit farmers, the environment, and society. 

The MA4R through the PA4R and DM4R, will advance the strategic plan with the support of a 2024 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grant Funding will support farmers to implement new advanced nutrient management practices, and grow the organization’s engagement with the trusted advisors of farmers.

The Mid-Atlantic 4R team will also continue the successful 4R voucher program with support from the Keith Campbell Foundation. In 2024, the team funded 31 vouchers with our first grant and covered 9,196 acres of planned advanced nutrient management practices. For 2025, the 4R Alliance has 30 vouchers available to farmer and agribusiness pairs to take one’s farming operation to the next step in advanced nutrient management. Enrollment for these vouchers is now open, please email Jenell McHenry to secure your voucher spot.

Furthermore, the strategic plan includes: defining a standardized methodology for measuring and comparing Nitrogen and Phosphorus Use Efficiency of 4R Best Management Practices (BMPs) vs. average Nitrogen Use Efficiency; serving trusted advisors by demonstrating 4R BMPs and their impact; growing partnerships and engagement; securing funds to continue to improve nutrient stewardship; and hiring a full-time Executive Director.

On December 16th, the Mid-Atlantic 4R Association welcomed Jenell McHenry as their first full-time Executive Director. Jenell has been employed by Thompson Ag Consulting for the past five years where she has served a number of agriculture organizations, including the 4R Alliance. Jenell currently resides in Kent County, Maryland with her husband Joey and son, Lee. As a family they raise beef cattle from cow to consumer, run a commercial trucking company, and farm corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, sorghum, and hay.  Ben Hushon, Chair of the Mid-Atlantic 4R Board, said “we are very honored to have Jenell join our Association full-time and think about the 4Rs every day. Her expertise and experience will provide the skills necessary to expand the scope and scale of our future efforts.” Jenell can be reached at midatlantic4r@gmail.com and you can learn more about the PA4R, DM4R efforts at 4RMidAtlantic.com.

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New Funding Announced to Support Advanced Nutrient Management in Chesapeake Watershed

Posted on by Jenell Eck | Posted in In the News

Queenstown, Maryland (September 21, 2020) – The Mid-Atlantic 4R Nutrient Stewardship Association was granted $990,000 over three years from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to provide education, training, and cost-share to increase the implementation of 4R Nutrient Stewardship practices across Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The Mid-Atlantic 4R Nutrient Stewardship Association is a non-profit that supports local 4R Alliance, collaborations of agribusinesses, researchers, government agencies, and conservation groups working to advance nutrient stewardship within the Chesapeake Bay and Mid-Atlantic Region. With close partnership, the Delaware-Maryland 4R Alliance, the Pennsylvania 4R Alliance, The Nature Conservancy, Thompson Ag Consulting, Rosetree Consulting LLC, Penn Ag Industries Association, the Delaware-Maryland Agribusiness Association, and a number of other agribusiness partners will work with local farmers to advance the objectives of the project.

Partners will increase the implementation of 4R nutrient stewardship practices (applying the Right source of nutrients, at the Right rate, in the Right place, and at the Right time of year to maximize nutrient use efficiency) that will improve water quality and benefit the economic and social goals of local farmers. The project will be guided by first developing an understanding of the barriers to widespread 4R practice adoption and designing outreach and implementation strategies to offer solutions. We will engage 300 individual farms to identify additional nutrient conservation opportunities on 30,000 acres to increase implementation of 4R nutrient stewardship practices. Financial incentives will be utilized to increase implementation of split application of nitrogen on 25,000 acres. Additionally, we will develop a pilot process and business model for a Pennsylvania Manure Transport Exchange Bank.

The DE-MD 4R Alliance recently hosted a virtual field day attracting over 180 participants from across the Chesapeake Bay watershed illustrating the broad interest in advancing 4R practices. Agribusiness and research partners provided technical presentations on the latest technologies and agronomic, economic, and environmental benefits of 4R practices. This grant will continue to support these efforts at field days, farmer-focused “4R Real Talks” and technical service provider trainings. Agribusinesses and agency partners that work closely with farmers will continue to provide technical and financial assistance directly to producers to support the adoption of new practices. If you are interested in becoming a partner, please visit our website at www.4rmidatlantic.com.

The NFWF in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership, is working to restore water quality and habitats of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers and streams. This year, EPA awarded $18 million in grants for 56 new projects across six states and Washington DC. Major funding is provided by EPA’s CBP. Overall, the grants will generate about $19 million in matching dollars, for a total of about $37 million, From 1999 to 2020, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awarded more than 1,200 grants totaling early $176 million. Among other impacts, the grants are estimated to have reduced annual nitrogen pollution loading by 26 million pounds and annual phosphorus loading by 4.5 million pounds.

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The Mid-Atlantic 4R Nutrient Stewardship Association is a non-profit entity working to provide education to farmers on the economic and environmental benefits of implementing 4R nutrient stewardship practices, which will accelerate progress toward clean water and habitat goals.