Nebraska Extension – Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community

Purpose

Time and time again, experience has taught us that many people learn by doing, not just from listening to presentations. The Nebraska Animal Manure Management Team has worked hard over the last six years to develop and expand what is now referred to as the Interactive Nutrient Management Decision-Making Exercise. This workshop will serve as a train-the-trainer event where attendees will:

1. Discover how the exercise began and what it has grown to include
2. Get familiar with the pieces and parts by helping set up the activity
3. Experience a couple of the activities as participants
4. Hear from others that have adapted the exercise and their experiences
5. Brainstorm how the exercise can be used elsewhere or for other concepts

What Did We Do?

The Interactive Nutrient Management Decision-Making Exercise (mapping exercise) was developed by the Animal Manure Management Team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Minnesota to engage participants during Manure Application Trainings. In Nebraska, these trainings previously relied heavily on PowerPoint and recorded presentations, but with many people being hands-on learners, an interactive exercise was proposed. In 2020, the original 6 activities were used for the afternoon portion, and it has since grown to the exercise it is today that is incorporated throughout the whole-day training.

It has been used not only for livestock producers but also crop producers. Parts of it have been modified to fit into workshops at conferences and, most recently, high school classrooms. Current expansion topics include spray drift to avoid sensitive areas and nitrogen management from all sources.

What Have We Learned?

Because many livestock producers in Nebraska are required to attend Land Application Training events every five years to maintain their Livestock Waste Control Facility permit, the winter 2024-2025 programming season for the Nebraska manure team offered an opportunity to ask participants how their operations have changed since the first time they had seen the Interactive Nutrient Management Decision-Making Exercise (in 2020). The team asked 3 questions specific to the exercise and changes on their operations and found the following results.

In general, participants are considering the topics taught during training more now than they were five years ago. The figure below indicates that 48% consider weather forecasts to decrease odor risk more or much more than they did prior to experiencing the Interactive Nutrient Management Decision-Making Exercise. Forty eight percent and 59% consider water quality and soil health impacts from manure more than five years ago, subsequently. While many participants already factored in transportation cost compared to nutrient value captured for a field, 59% reported that they consider it more or much more than they did, and 55% reported that they now considered the value of manure nutrients based on a field’s soil test more or much more.

Figure 1: As a result of experiencing the interactive nutrient management decision making exercise, how does your operation consider survey redults

We also asked participants to share with us how useful they felt the changes and expanded activities of the Interactive Nutrient Management Decision-Making Exercise were. All participants felt that the changes and expansion were useful with 52% indicating that they were very or extremely useful.

Figure 2: How useful are the changes and expanded activities of the Interactive Nutrient Management Decision-making exercise pie chart

We also asked, “How do you expect your experience with the newer activities of the interactive nutrient management decision-making exercise will change your operation in the future?” and, among others, we received the following responses:

- “[we will] take more consideration to neighbors near application”
- “[we will make] better $ management decision[s] on manure application site[s]”
- “[the activity] makes us want to plan out better to get better results”

Future Plans

With so much success using this teaching tool, we would like to expand it to teach topics other than nutrient management. The Soil Health Nexus, a soil health workgroup in the north central region of the US, is in the process of developing an adaptation of this tool that will teach participants about the impacts of certain practices on soil health. Currently, progress has been made on activities focusing on tillage and the use of cover crops. Other planned activities include a focus on crop rotation and the use of the Soil Health Matrix, a tool developed by the Soil Health Nexus.

The Nebraska Animal Manure Management team, as part of a different grant, also has plans to create some activities focused on integrating livestock into cropping systems.

We also support using the base model of this exercise and adapting it for other practices and audiences outside of Nebraska.

Authors

Presenting & Corresponding author

Leslie Johnson, Animal Manure Management Extension Educator, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, leslie.johnson@unl.edu

Additional author

Amy Millmier Schmidt, Professor and Livestock Bioenvironmental Engineering Specialist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln;

Additional Information

Downloadable Curriculum: https://lpelc.org/interactive-nutrient-management-decision-making-exercise-curricula/

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge all other contributors to the curriculum in the past including:

- Larry Howard, Rick Koelsch, Agnes Kurtzhals, Aaron Nygren, Agustin Olivio, Amber Patterson, Katie Pekarek, Amy Schmidt, Mike Sindelar, and Todd Whitney (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)
- Daryl Andersen, Tyler Benal, Will Brueggemann, Russ Oakland, and Bret Schomer (Lower Platte North NRD)
- Blythe McAfee and Tiffany O’Neill (Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy)
- Andy Scholting (Nutrient Advisors)
- Marie Krausnick, Dan Leininger (Upper Big Blue NRD)
- Chryseis Modderman (University of Minnesota)
- Nutrient Advisors
- Settje Agri Services Eng.
- Ward Laboratories Inc.

The authors are solely responsible for the content of these proceedings. The technical information does not necessarily reflect the official position of the sponsoring agencies or institutions represented by planning committee members, and inclusion and distribution herein does not constitute an endorsement of views expressed by the same. Printed materials included herein are not refereed publications. Citations should appear as follows. EXAMPLE: Authors. 2025. Title of presentation. Waste to Worth. Boise, ID. April 7-11, 2025. URL of this page. Accessed on: today’s date.

Purpose

In the spring of 2021, Rick Koelsch and Leslie Johnson shared these activities with a number of educators across the U.S. and encouraged them to download electronic copies of all resources, which were adaptable for their state, in order to begin sharing a highly interactive and peer-to-peer educational experience. This workshop will continue that education. This workshop will again share the original curriculum for teaching animal manure management and will highlight adaptations of the exercise for teaching similar concepts to the same and different audiences. Part of the workshop will be a train-the-trainer on how to use the original mapping exercise. Additionally, participants will preview variations on the exercise that have been developed for different audiences including crop producers that may not have their own livestock and women in agriculture. Finally, we’ll brainstorm other ideas and plant the seeds of development for future similar curriculum development and adaptation.

What Did We Do?

An educational curriculum was pilot tested in 2020 by Extension professionals in Nebraska and Minnesota. The curriculum includes a 25-square mile map, scenarios set up for six animal feeding operations (you pick one for your group), four fields for land application with simplified information cards, worksheets, and one-page information sheets for each of the six scenarios. These activities often lead to lots of peer-to-peer teaching. As participants work through these discussions, they add their happy and sad face emojis to the map to weigh the benefits and concerns connected to individual fields. The curriculum has been utilized across the state of Nebraska with livestock producers, and in Minnesota with custom manure applicators, livestock producers, and county feedlot officers.

In Michigan, an adaptation was developed with scenarios for three locations looking at the environmental, economically, and social aspects of manure and fertility management. Then, with the help of farm business educators, the scenarios were integrated with a new tool developed to look at the costs of different fertility programs to determine what is best for participant farms.

Minnesota took the activity and made digital versions of the game pieces to be used in an online activity. They utilized Jamboard and breakout rooms in Zoom to work through the scenarios.

In Nebraska, the water quality scenario part of the curriculum has been updated slightly to include water quality concerns not only about manure, but also about commercial fertilizer and nitrogen leaching. This was done as part of an adaptation for use in Nitrogen Management Trainings that are hosted by various Natural Resource Districts (NRDs). Other scenarios were developed to teach how to calculate a realistic yield goal and various nitrogen credits that should be considered when determining a nitrogen fertilizer rate.

Another variation in Nebraska took the manure credits exercise from the nitrogen management variation and reworked it for teaching how to determine a manure application rate on both a nitrogen and phosphorus basis to learners that had not previously utilized manure as a fertilizer, but rather were primarily spreading manure to dispose of it.

What Have We Learned?

Since beginning use of the mapping exercise, participant discussion throughout our annual land application training program has increased dramatically. This increased their satisfaction with the program as well. Because the mapping exercise requires active participation in the program, very few trainees feel comfortable sitting back to passively learn the materials, but rather they are discussing with their neighbor and attempting the exercises. Most notably, participants are usually surprised when we get through the exercise and they have completed their training. They’re busy working and forget to watch the clock, which is a wonderful complement to the program. Evaluations at the end of the program indicate that the favorite part of the program is the interactive map, group work and discussions and the ability to “visualize and understand nutrient application”.

While we expected there to be a need to have a facilitator at each table initially, experience has shown that a facilitator can handle multiple tables. Facilitators are helpful to keep participant discussions on-track and progressing through the exercise, often needing to point out instructions within the exercise. Room setup matters as does the size of the group. To make this curriculum work, large round tables with up to 8-10 participants are ideal, but 2 rectangular tables pushed together can work well too. Smaller groups work better but the nitrogen management variation has been used successfully with up to 85 participants at a time, surrounding multiple maps.

Future Plans

Continued updating of the curriculum and additional scenarios will be necessary as land application training for Nebraska livestock producers is required every 5 years, and the Nebraska Extension manure team attempts to not do the same program for the same audience more than once. This workshop will hopefully lead to future collaborations and ideas for additional or modified scenarios.

Authors

Presenting authors

- Leslie Johnson, Animal Manure Management Extension Educator, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
- Todd Whitney, Water & Cropping Systems Extension Educator, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
- Sarah Fronczak, Environmental Management Educator, Michigan State University

Corresponding author

Leslie Johnson, Animal Manure Management Extension Educator, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Corresponding author email address

leslie.johnson@unl.edu

Additional authors

- Aaron Nygren, Water & Cropping Systems Extension Educator, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
- Chryseis Modderman, Assistant Extension Professor, Center for Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, University of Minnesota
- Michael Sindelar, Water & Cropping Systems Extension Educator, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Additional Information

- https://lpelc.org/selecting-preferred-land-application-sites-extension-curricula-for-interactive-land-application-education/

Acknowledgements

The original mapping exercise was developed in partnership with Nutrient Advisors, Ward Laboratories, Settje Agri-Services, and University of Minnesota Extension with funding from the North American Manure Expo and the North Central Region Water Network. Partners for the development of nitrogen management variations included the Lower Platte North and Upper Big Blue NRD.

The authors are solely responsible for the content of these proceedings. The technical information does not necessarily reflect the official position of the sponsoring agencies or institutions represented by planning committee members, and inclusion and distribution herein does not constitute an endorsement of views expressed by the same. Printed materials included herein are not refereed publications. Citations should appear as follows. EXAMPLE: Authors. 2022. Title of presentation. Waste to Worth. Oregon, OH. April 18-22, 2022. URL of this page. Accessed on: today’s date.