PEORIA, Ill. — Approximately 1,200 farmers and fertilizer and chemical industry leaders attended the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Assoc. (IFCA) annual convention at the Peoria Civic Center Jan. 17-19, where the focus was on government regulations, including nutrient stewardship.

The 15th annual convention featured a trade show with 110 exhibitors and a full roster of speakers addressing topics such as adjusting nitrogen rates for differing corn hybrids, fertility management for corn and soybeans with strip-till and low-volume aerial fungicide application on corn.

Dan Schaefer, newly appointed director of nutrient stewardship for the Illinois Council on Best Management Practices, led a presentation on C-BMP’s “Keep it in the Crop by 2025,” or KIC program. The former GROWMARK expert on plant nutrition has a list of long-term goals for the KIC program, which encourages farmers to take steps to minimize nitrogen and other chemical runoff from fields through the “four Rs” of nutrient stewardship: right source, right rate, right time, right place.

Schafer’s top immediate aspiration is to help farmers get due credit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the public regarding recent improvements in nutrient management. “The U.S. EPA came to the Illinois EPA and (asked the state agency) to show movement in nitrogen management and losses from watersheds, or they would apply numerical standards for clean water. We now have a volunteer program, KIC, to help make these changes,” he said.

“Coming into 2012-2013 I need to collect information from these watersheds and document the practices of farmers so we can show what has changed in N management. That’s my biggest goal,” said Schaefer, referring to studies of N levels in six central Illinois watersheds that are under way.

“We know a lot of N management practices are being done. A lot of farmers and retailers are already doing this kind of work. We’re managing N in the last five or six years better than what we thought was possible, and we’re already doing a lot of things we’re not getting credit for.”

During 2011 the fledgling KIC program actively promoted stipulations for the application of N as established by the Illinois Agronomy Handbook.

This means in part that farmers should wait until soil temperatures at the four-inch level are at 50 degrees Fahrenheit or cooler before beginning fieldwork. KIC also espoused the use of nitrification inhibitors in both the fall and spring.

During 2012 the KIC program plans to step up its encouragement to make three seasonal applications of N per year in lieu of one fall application, according to Schaefer.

“We recommend a 50 percent application in the fall, 25 percent in the spring before planting and another 25 percent in-crop,” he said. “That gives a farmer a lot of leeway. You don’t spend your entire N budget all in one application. You don’t want to risk all our N out there at one time, knowing how weather cycles work.

“You want to place it in a position where the crop can get it, and spacing it out throughout the season guarantees the crop is never without N.”

Another goal for the KIC is to develop a new optimum N rate calculator that provides more localized projections than the current model does.

“We’re proposing some N rate trials in these watersheds to build a database of N rates. We want to zero in on an optimum N rate calculator for the central Illinois watersheds,” Schaefer said. “Enough studies in this area can determine an optimum N rate. The watershed areas are unique areas with different soil types and characteristics than the rest of central Illinois.”

The KIC program is actually a win-win situation, Schaefer told farmers. “We can improve yields by better managing N,” he said. “Our goal is to, from the bottom up, talk to the retailers and educate them to talk to their growers and explain N management and the four Rs.”