Welcome to the 4R Nutrient Management Casino!.

4R Nutrient Stewardship is an approach used by industry, government and growers to accomplish responsible nutrient use through the Right Rate @ the Right Rate, Right Time and Right Place.  This concept begins with making the right choices for nutrient management to benefit farmers through good agronomic, economic and environmental management practices. 

One of the challenges of extension is coming up with unique and interactive activities – something that allows for newfound knowledge to fully sink in by applying it to a useful activity.  In the case of 4R Nutrient Stewardship, we created a “4R Nutrient Management Casino” where groups of agronomists were dealt a “hand”, consisting of a specific soil type, tillage system, available seeding/fertilizer unit, fall soil test results and recommendations for a 50 bu/ac canola crop.  As the participants worked through their nutrient management plans using the 4R approach, we tested the resiliency of their system by dealing them “wild cards”.  These wild cards were unpredicted situations; sometimes weather related (wet fall, cold spring) and sometimes logistical challenges (lack of custom applicators, no access to anhydrous ammonia in fall). 

The Nutrient Casino activity was designed to engage farmers and agronomists to use the 4R approach and demonstrate how the flexibility in their approach can deal with unexpected situations.  There is no one set of 4Rs – every farm will have a different challenge and is equipped with different tools to face those challenges.  The 4R approach allows for many combinations of “Rights” to create a unique nutrient management plan for each producer.