Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy Survey Cover Letter (Illinois)

February 2024
As the Chairman and Illinois Farm Bureau representative on the Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council (NREC),
I want to congratulate you for being selected to provide important information on behalf of Illinois farmers.
By way of background, the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS) was developed by the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency (IEPA), the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA), and a multi-stakeholder Policy Working Group
(PWG). The initial NLRS was released in July 2015 and is a framework for leveraging existing programs to optimize
nutrient loss reduction while promoting collaboration, research, and innovation among the private sector, academia,
non-profits, wastewater treatment agencies, the agricultural sector, and state and local government.
The primary NLRS goals are to reduce annual loading of nitrate-nitrogen and total phosphorus to the Mississippi River
and address the impacts on local water quality. The ultimate goal is to achieve 45 percent loss reductions in both
nitrate-nitrogen and total phosphorus with the interim loss reduction goals of 15 percent nitrate-nitrogen and 25
percent total phosphorus by 2025.
The NLRS PWG is expected to report its progress to the public every two years via a Biennial Report, the first of which
was released in July 2017, followed by a second report in November 2019, and a third in September 2021. An important
part of the Biennial Report is the attached National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) survey that can help
demonstrate implementation of various nutrient reduction best management practices (BMPs) on the land in a
statistically valid manner over a long period of time. In addition to funding important nutrient research, NREC also
prioritizes tracking the adoption and implementation of BMPs, and provides the funding for the NLRS NASS survey on

Without the NASS survey, the full story of Illinois farmers’ efforts across
the state to improve water quality cannot accurately be told.

behalf of Illinois farmers.

Illinois farmers have been making tremendous strides at voluntarily implementing BMPs that make sense for both their
farms and the environment. Please take a few minutes to document your own progress toward the NLRS goals. Thank
you for your time and attention to this priority issue for Illinois agriculture.
For more information on the NLRS, see https://tinyurl.com/Illinois-NLRS
Sincerely,

Jeff Kirwan
Chairman, Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council
District 3 Director, Illinois Farm Bureau

Please utilize this map and chart to answer Question 1 under Section 2: Nutrient Management.
Maximum Return to Nitrogen (MRTN) is the Nitrogen rate where the economic net return to Nitrogen application is
maximized. The MRTN rates below are calculated based on an extensive network of trials conducted across Illinois. The
rates are updated each year and become the recommended Nitrogen rates from the University of Illinois. The corn
nitrogen rate calculator website is available at the following URL: cnrc.agron.iastate.edu