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Staff report: Dunn County staff report busy month with grant submissions, staffing change and nitrogen trials
Summary
County staff reported April 16 that a part-time deputy will convert to full time June 1, the county submitted several agricultural and infrastructure grant applications and summarized preliminary nitrogen-optimization pilot results.
County staff briefed the Planning Resource and Development Committee on a series of operational and program updates at the April 16 meeting.
Heather (county staff) reported March was busy and said a request to convert a part-time deputy to full-time had been approved; that employee will move to full-time status on June 1. Environmental services staff (acting for Tom) noted several grant submissions and program activity: the county applied for nonpoint-source agricultural runoff grants, including one described in the meeting as an approximately $860,000 grant for farm improvements related to a notice-of-discharge issue; staff also submitted a targeted runoff management grant and a DATCP reserve funding grant for other farm improvements.
Environmental staff summarized local results from a nitrogen-optimization pilot program covering 2023–24 trials. They said preliminary takeaways included that late-terminated rye cover crops can use more available nitrogen than early-terminated rye cover crops, and that incorporated manure typically provides more available nitrogen to the growing crop than unincorporated manure. Staff described the statewide nature of similar trials and said further analysis (including soil-type and landscape-position factors) is part of ongoing work; they said yield impacts were observed but not at levels judged to trigger a change in common practice based on the local trials alone.
Staff offered to present more detailed findings at a future meeting and noted that several grant application deadlines had fallen on April 15 (staffing grants, cost-share funding, snowmobile trail and bridge grants).
