Nutrient Tracking Tool User’s Guide

This publication provides a brief overview of the steps needed to effectively operate the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT). NTT is a web-based field model that was developed to assist producers, their technical service providers, and others to calculate nutrient and sediment loss reductions resulting from various conservation practices. Since NTT provides nutrient reduction estimates for a wide array of practices and scenarios, the tool can be used for conservation practice evaluations, as well as a number of other applications in addition to estimating reductions for water quality trading credits.

The Nutrient Tracking Tool is intended for use by agricultural professionals or others familiar with farm procedures and conservation practices. It is a web-based application that estimates the nutrient and sediment load leaving a farm field by applying the field-scale runoff functions of the Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender Model (APEX). It was designed and developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, and the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research at Tarleton State University. The Nutrient Tracking Tool is approved by Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for use in water quality trading but has not yet been applied.

Read the Nutrient Tracking Tool User’s Guide