An agrichemical handling facility is built with an impervious surface to provide an environmentally safe area for the handling of on-farm agrichemicals. The facility provides for the containment and isolation of spillage from on-farm agrichemical mixing, loading, unloading, and rinsing operations to minimize pollution of, or harm to, the soil, water, air, plant, animal resources, and humans. The facility must be carefully located to minimize the potential for impact on neighbors, surface and groundwater resources, and farm production.

A waste storage facility is an agricultural waste storage impoundment/containment made by constructing an embankment and/or excavating a pit or dugout, or fabricating a structure. The waste storage facility provides temporary storage of manure, agricultural by-products, wastewater, and/or contaminated runoff. The facility allows agricultural operation management flexibility for waste utilization. Storage structure types include liquid waste storage ponds or tanks, and solid waste stacking structures. An operation and maintenance plan is developed to specify requirements for emptying the storage facility. The plan specifies timing, rates, and volume of waste applications.

This practice involves performing tillage operations below the normal tillage depth to modify the physical or chemical properties of a soil. Deep tillage can be designed to accomplish one or more of the following conservation purposes: Fracture restrictive soil layers; bury or mix soil deposits from wind or water erosion or flood over wash; or reduce concentration of soil contaminants, which inhibit plant growth. This practice includes tillage operations commonly referred to as deep plowing, subsoiling, ripping or row-till, performed from time to time below the normal tillage depth. Deep tillage is normally used concurrently with other conservation practices as part of a resource management system. These practices may include conservation crop rotation, residue management, nutrient and pest management and pasture and hay land planting.

Conservation crop rotation is growing a planned sequence of various crops on the same piece of land for a variety of conservation purposes. Crops included in conservation crop rotation include high-residue producing crops such as corn or wheat in rotation with low-residue producing crops such as vegetables or soybeans. The rotation may also involve growing forage crops in rotation with over field crops. Crop rotations vary with soil type, crops produced, farming operations, and how the crop residue is managed. The most effective crops for soil improvement are fibrous-rooted high-residue producing crops such as grass and small grain. Perennial plants used for forage are very effective in crop rotations due to increases in organic matter and reduced soil erosion. In addition, crop rotations help break insect, disease, and weed cycles. Rotations add diversity to farm operations and often reduce economic and environmental risks.

This practice includes maintaining most of the crop residue on the soil surface throughout the year, commonly referred to as no-till, zero till, slot plant, row till, strip till, or just the generic term, conservation tillage. The common characteristic of this practice is that the only tillage performed is a very narrow strip prepared by coulters, sweeps, or similar devices attached to the front of the planter. Benefits to soil include increasing organic matter, improving soil tilth, and increasing productivity as the constant supply of organic material left on the soil surface is decomposed by a healthy population of earthworms and other organisms. Operations and maintenance for this practice includes evaluating the crop-residue cover and orientation for each crop to ensure the planned amounts, orientation, and benefits are being achieved. Weeds and other pests must be monitored to ensure pest populations do not exceed thresholds.

Cover crops include grasses, legumes, forbs, or other herbaceous plants established for seasonal cover and conservation purposes. Cover crops reduce erosion by water or wind by disrupting the impact of raindrops and the stinging forces of wind blown soil particles. Cover crops with tall above-ground growth can help increase soil organic matter. Cover crops can capture and recycle excess nutrients like free nitrogen in the soil profile. Legume cover crops can be inter-seeded during the growing season to fix nitrogen for the next year’s crop. Some cover crops can attract beneficial insects and provide over-wintering sites for the next year. Because of the potential allelopathic effect of weed seedlings rye and ryegrass cover crops can suppress weed populations. In addition cover crops can increase available soil moisture by providing insulating mulch if at least a 50% or more cover is maintained after planting.

Critical area planting establishes permanent vegetation on sites that have, or are expected to have, high erosion rates, and on sites that have conditions that prevent the establishment of vegetation with normal practices. Erosion control is the primary consideration for plant material selection. However, a broad choice of grass, trees, shrubs, and vines are usually available and adapted for most sites. Conservation benefits may include, but are not limited to: reduced sheet and rill erosion; reduced transport of sediment; stabilized slopes, road banks, stream banks, shorelines, sand dunes.

This practice includes managing the amount, orientation and distribution of crop and other plant residue on the soil surface year round while limiting the soil-disturbing activities used to grow and harvest crops in systems where the field surface is tilled prior to planting. A majority of the soil surface is disturbed by noninversion tillage operations such as vertical tillage, chiseling, and disking, and also includes tillage/planting systems with relatively minimal soil disturbance. The practice includes the uniform spreading of residue on the soil surface, planning the number, sequence, and timing of tillage operations to achieve the prescribed amount of surface residue needed and using planting equipment designed to operate in high residue situations. This practice benefits soil by increasing organic matter, improving soil tilth and increases productivity as the constant supply of organic material left on the soil surface is decomposed by a healthy population of earth worms and other organisms. Operations and maintenance for this practice includes evaluating the crop residue cover and orientation for each crop to ensure the planned amounts, orientation and benefits are being achieved.

Filter strips are areas of herbaceous vegetation situated between cropland, grazing land, forest and, or disturbed land and environmentally-sensitive areas. Sensitive areas include streams, lakes, wetlands, and other water bodies and areas susceptible to damage by water-borne pollutants, including sediment, particulate organics, sediment-adsorbed contaminants, and dissolved contaminants.

A grassed waterway is a shaped or graded channel that is established with suitable vegetation to convey surface water at a non-erosive velocity using a broad and shallow cross section to a stable outlet. Waterways are constructed to convey runoff from concentrated-flow areas, terraces, or diversions where erosion control is needed. Waterways can be used to control gullies and/or improve the water quality of downstream water bodies by reducing the sediment carried by runoff water. Grassed waterways are designed to allow farm equipment to cross without damaging the waterway or the equipment. This practice has a minimum expected life of 10 years. Some maintenance will be needed to maintain the waterway capacity, vegetative cover, and outlet stability. This will include mowing (or controlled grazing), fertilizing, and sediment removal. Most of the damage that occurs to grassed waterways is caused by equipment or herbicides and can be avoided by careful management.

Nutrient management involves managing the amount, placement, and timing of plant nutrients to obtain optimum yields and minimize the risk of surface and groundwater pollution. Nutrient management may be used on any area of land where plant nutrients are applied to enhance yields and maintain or improve chemical and biological condition of the soil. The source of plant nutrients may be from organic wastes, commercial fertilizer, legumes, or crop residue. The amount and timing of nutrients is based on soil testing, planned yield, and growing season of target plants. Operation and maintenance provide that nutrient management plans must be reviewed and revised, as needed, with each soil test cycle, changes in manure volume or analysis, crops, or crop management. Records must be maintained for at least 5 years to document plan implementation. All nutrient management activities must adhere to national, state and local water quality regulations.

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a site-specific combination of pest prevention, pest avoidance, pest monitoring, and pest suppression strategies. IPM is used to prevent or mitigate pest management risks for identified natural resource concerns. Strategies that keep pest populations below economically damaging levels and minimize pest resistance should be utilized because they also help prevent unnecessary pest management risks to natural resources and humans. IPM is crop and/or land use-specific and adheres to applicable elements and guidelines accepted by the local land grant university or extension.

This practice consists of an area of permanent vegetation used for agricultural wastewater treatment from livestock holding areas. Vegetated treatment areas are designed to improve water quality by reducing loading of nutrients, organics, pathogens, and other contaminants associated with animal manure, other wastes and wastewater. More than one treatment strip may be needed. Permanent herbaceous vegetation, consisting of a single species or a mixture of grasses, legumes, and/or other forbs adapted to the soil and climate, is established in the treatment strip. The vegetated treatment area must receive regular maintenance for it to operate as planned.

This practice improves the farmability of sloping land, reduces erosion, traps sediment, reduces and manages runoff, and improves water quality. Water and sediment control basins are constructed across small drainageways where they intercept runoff. The runoff is detained in the basin where sediment is allowed to settle out. The runoff is slowly released through an outlet. Generally, the structure uses an undergrand outlet to carry the runoff in a pipe to a receiving stream or ditch. This practice is applied where the topography is generally irregular or undulating, and water concentrates and causes gullies to form. Therefore, contour farming, strip cropping, terraces, and other practices that involve farming on the contour may not be suitable on fields where this practice is used. Operation and maintenance includes conducting periodic inspections, prompt repair or replacement of any damaged components, removal of accumulated sediment, and regular maintenance of inlets and outlets.