Adopt a 4R Plus Strategy for Your Farm
Choose the 4R Plus Practices that Best Fit Your Farm
4R Plus practices are more effective when they are targeted in areas with the greatest runoff, nutrient loss and soil loss. No farm is the same, so talk to your crop adviser, conservation district representative or Natural Resources Conservation Service expert about the 4R Plus practices that are best for your acres.
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- Brush Management
- Conversation Cover
- Contour Buffer Strip
- Contour Farming
- Cover Crop
- Crop Rotation
- Denitrifying Bioreactor
- Farmstead Energy
- Fence
- Field Border
- Filter Strip
- Forage and Biomass Planting
- Grade Stabilization Structure
- Grassed Waterway
- High Funnel System
- Manure Storage
- No-Till/Strip-Till
- 4R Nutrient Management
- Pest Management
- Pond
- Prescribed Burning
- Prescribed Grazing
- Riparian Forest Buffer
- Stream Crossing
- Stream Bank Protection
- Terrace
- Tree/Shrub Establishment
- Upland Wildlife Habitat Management
- Water and Sediment Control Basin
- Watering Facility
- Wetland
- Windbreak/Shelterbelt
Best Management Practices to Reduce Soil Erosion
- Reduce or eliminate tillage to leave more crop residue on the soil surface.
- Provide a continuous living crop like cover crops between row crop seasons to protect the soil and utilize unused nutrients.
- Install stream buffers to trap soil and nutrients before they enter streams.
- Use grassed waterways to channel water from the field through perennial vegetation to retain sediment and nutrients in the field.
- Install prairie strip to slow water movement, reduce runoff and soil loss, and improve wildlife habitat.
- Add terraces to slow water movement and increase water infiltration on sloping fields.
- Trap water and soil within crop rows with contour farming practices.
- Convert highly erodible land to perennial vegetation or enroll it in the Conservation Reserve Program.
- Add another crop to a row crop rotation to break up pest cycles and improve soil biodiversity.
- Incorporate rotational grazing of livestock to give previously grazed sections time to regrow.
4R Plus Means Dollars and Makes Sense
4R Plus is being guided by a coalition of agricultural and conservation organizations to support farmers’ efforts to implement precise nutrient management and conservation practices.
Soil Testing Makes Economic Sense
Precision Ag Specialist, Emily Doyle, says soil fertility testing is the foundation for a farm’s prescribed 4R nutrient stewardship program. Watch the video to find out why she encourages farmers to test soil.