Best Management Practices

Best Management Practices are often called  BMPs.  This is a term that refers specifically to agricultural production of crops and livestock.  BMPs are techniques that farmers use which are designed to keep rain from washing topsoil away.  There are also BMPs designed to reduce or eliminate the amount of pesticides, manure, and fertilizers being washed into surface waters or seeping into ground water.

To properly apply BMPs to any particular farm, the producer should have some basic knowledge of the hydrologic cycle, surface runoff, topography, climate and the geology of Ohio’s soils, as they relate to his or her particular farm.  There is a lot of difference among farms in different areas when it comes to soil type, patterns of water drainage, etc. 

 No-till is a basic BMP for keeping the topsoil on the land during rainstorms.  No-till involves complete elimination of plowing the field.  The previous year’s crop residue is left to decompose, thereby providing additional nutrients to the following year’s crop.  A special planter drills the seeds into the ground.  There are variations on no-till (strip till, minimum till, ridge till), determined by the degree to which the ground is “worked” with a plow.

 Other BMPs that conserve soil include contour cultivation, ridge planting, contour strip cropping, multiple cropping and rotations, good crop management and engineering structures (see technical assistance).

Some BMPs designed to protect surface and ground waters from pesticide contamination include the following: store / mix chemicals away from surface water, water-tight containment at storage and mixing sites, in-field mixing and rinsing, injection sprayers and on-board sprayer rinsers, triple or pressure rinsing containers, recycling or proper disposal of containers, use of bulk pesticides.  The timing and amounts of pesticide application can also greatly influence how much would be transported to surface or ground waters.

Knowledge about and utilization of Best Management Practices is a very detailed science, only a small example of which is explained here. Also, ongoing research leads to improvements and innovations in BMPs.  There are some excellent print resources available from the Ohio Cooperative Extension Service (OCES), The Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), or from Montgomery SWCD. 

Today’s farmers are able to produce many more times the amount of food as compared to their predecessors.  Detailed knowledge and use of Best Management Practices is the key to making this kind of agricultural success sustainable into the distant future.  It is only through wise use and conservation of fertile soil and clean water that we can preserve the future prosperity of our society.