Some examples of agricultural BMPs include safe management of animal waste, controlling pests and nutrients, contour farming, crop rotation, and vegetative buffers near streams.
- Conservation Tillage – the practice of leaving harvested plant materials on the soil surface to reduce runoff and soil erosion;
- Crop Nutrient Management – managing all nutrient inputs helps ensure that nutrients are available to meet crop needs while reducing nutrient runoff;
- Pest Management – using various methods for managing pests while protecting soil, water, and air quality;
- Conservation Buffers – using vegetation strips to provide additional barriers of protection which prevent potential pollutants from running off into surface waters;
- Irrigation Management – increasing irrigation efficiency can reduce non-point source pollution of ground and surface waters;
- Grazing Management – managing livestock grazing to lessen the water quality impacts (e.g. reduce erosion potential);
- Animal Feeding Operations Management – using runoff control, proper waste storage, and nutrient management to minimize the impacts of animal feeding operations;
- Erosion and Sediment Control – using practices to conserve and reduce the amount of sediment reaching water bodies, overall protecting agricultural land and water quality.