BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The signup period for the Illinois Council on Best Management Practices’ (CBMP) N-WATCH Sentinel Site Program will be extended past its original April 30 deadline, CBMP announced.

The reason for this is because some of the $60,000 allotted for the program, which helps farmers become more aware of plant-available nitrogen dynamics in the soil environment, still remains unclaimed by farmers in targeted watershed areas and beyond.

“Farmers can still apply. We’ll keep the project going until we exhaust the funding,” announced Jennifer Tirey, CBMP executive director. “We want producers to be educated on when to use N and when they don’t need to use it. This (program) will help determine the when and where for N use. It is about maximizing the utilization of N.”

The N-Watch program has two components. Funding has been allotted for producers in eight priority watersheds as well as those outside watershed boundaries, on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We did not want to limit the project to farmers within key watersheds, but to extend it throughout the state,” Tirey explained.

Farmers can participate in the statewide or priority watershed N-Watch Sentinel Site project by applying through ag retail fertilizer locations and ag businesses directly serving them. Illinois CBMP will reimburse each ag retail or business location the cost of establishing N-WATCH – up to $200 – on as many as five registered sites within their areas.

Sites will be judged eligible if all requested data are correctly entered online, samples are successfully collected and submitted and farmer permissions have been acquired and registered online. Four testing dates in 2015 must be collected and submitted according to sampling protocols, detailed online at www.nwatchonline.com

CBMP believes improved stewardship of N use by Midwest farmers hinges on the proper use of the amount applied. N-WATCH is designed to fill the gaps in helping to estimate the dynamics of plant-available N in the soil. “How much N remains?” “Where is it at?” and “What form is it in?” are common questions many farmers face each spring.

N-WATCH was launched to help answer those by providing a method for observing changes in the concentration of plant-available N in the upper soil profile over time. The program is designed to guide producers down the path of maximizing N usage by optimizing harvest yield and thus, minimizing environmental impact.

The concept is known by those at CBMP as MOM. “MOM is something we talk about all the time. We want you to have a warm, fuzzy feeling about N-WATCH, and when you think about MOM, that’s normally the first thing on your mind. MOM is really, in a nutshell, what N-WATCH is all about,” said Tirey. N-WATCH also embraces the “4Rs” of production: right amount, right place, right rate and right time.

Farmers in limited areas of Illinois may be asked to help cost-share their participation in N-WATCH – up to 50 percent – though that shouldn’t cause them to hesitate to apply for the program, Tirey added. But producers who do not apply for the N-WATCH Sentinel Site program may still benefit from the initiative, she said. “With the Sentinel Site program, even if you are not directly participating, you can sign up for N-WATCH online and see what’s happening with nearby sites.”

The seeds for the N-WATCH program were sown when, in the spring of 2010, a southern Illinois farmer contacted Dr. Howard Brown, director of nutrient management and environmental stewardship for GROWMARK, with a serious problem: He believed all of his N had leached from the soil over the winter. A soil test conducted by Brown confirmed N was still present. “Before we can minimize the environmental impact of nutrients, we must first have a clear understanding of soil N behavior in a farmer’s field,” noted Brown, who serves as a top advisor to CBMP and its N-WATCH program.

“Improving water quality for everyone is not about reducing N use, it is about increasing N utilization. The N-WATCH Sentinel Site program will provide a way for more farmers to see the impact that tracking soil nitrate and ammonium-N can have on their N management decisions.”