New Desktop Features

•Partial field application Areas allow for planning fertilizer applications on areas of fields that cannot receive manure and for planning fall or spring manure applications in areas of the field with winter spreading prohibitions. Important note for permitted farms, Spreadable Area for fields with Surface Water Quality Management Areas is based on the SWQMA strategies selected and manure application method. Please make sure that all buffer strategies used on the farm are selected in the SWQMA Manure Application Strategies selection box on the farm screen.

•Improved layout for Nutrient Application Planner

•Winter spreading strategies can be set for whole farm or groups of fields

•CAFO W soil acknowledgments of proper techniques can be set for multiple fields

•CAFO R soil depth mapping can be verified for a single field or multiple fields

•Improved "Copy years" feature

•Can use multiple crops as criteria for selecting previous years in Rotation Wizard

•Search box to streamline selection from long lists (e.g., crops for a farm)

•Can select application time in Nutrient Application Planner

New SnapMaps Features

•Draw manure-prohibited areas by buffering existing features

Note for SnapMaps Users:

Once you install Version 18.0, you should upload your farms to SnapMaps, download, and import them to ensure that the spreadable-acres calculations are up to date and correct for your fields. This is especially important for CAFOs.

New Crops

To view the complete list of crops, go to A Guide to Crop Abbreviations

Alfalfa (1st cut) to mixed small grain legume forage

Horseradish

Diversified vegetables (single crop)

Diversified vegetables (single crop) to small grain cover crop

Note: The diversified vegetable crops introduced in v.17 were intended to represent generic small field organic vegetable production and assumed two crops grown in succession. These new diversified vegetable crops represent small field production with just one crop per year. Primary tillage choices are Fall chisel, disked; Spring Chisel, disked; Spring chisel, no disk; Spring chisel, disked with organic mulch; Spring chisel, disked with plastic mulch. Except for those with mulch, all include a row cultivation for weed control.

Tillage Additions

To view the complete list of tillages, go to Tillage Explanations

Corn seed: Strip till

Mint, seeding: Fall chisel, disked; Fall chisel, no disk; Fall vertical tillage; Spring chisel, disked; Spring chisel, no disk

Oat-Pea Forage w/ Alfalfa Seeding Spring: Fall vertical tillage and Spring vertical tillage

Soybeans grain + straw to small grain cover crop and Soybeans to small grain cover crop: Strip till for the soybean (assumes 30 in rows)

Winter Rye (forage) to Soybeans and Winter Rye (forage) to Soybeans g+s, for all soybean row widths:

•crop 1: No-till, crop 2: Cult.

•crop 1: No-till, crop 2: Vertical tillage

Winter wheat (grain) to Late-Direct Seeded Legume Forage and Winter wheat (grain+straw) to Late-Direct Seeded Legume Forage:

•Vertical tillage (for both crops)

•crop 1: Fall Chisel, no disk, crop 2: Cult.

•crop 1: Fall Chisel, no disk, crop 2: No-till

•crop 1: Fall Chisel, no disk, crop 2: Vertical tillage

•crop 1: Vertical till, crop 2: No-till

•crop 1: Vertical till, crop 2: Cult.

•crop 1: Fall Cult., crop 2: No-till

•crop 1: No-till, crop 2: Cult.

•crop 1: No-till, crop 2: Vertical till

Corrections to SnapPlus’s RUSLE2 management templates that may change calculated soil loss (as of Version 17)

In previous versions, the barley, oats, rye, triticale and wheat crops where straw was harvested along with the grain (grain + straw), the RUSLE2 calculations did not include a straw removal operation. This oversight has been corrected in SnapPlus 17. Consequently, calculated soil loss may now be higher for rotations that include these crops with (grain+straw). NOTE: If rotational soil loss exceeds the tolerance (T) with grain+ straw crops when it did not in the past, changing the crop to simply grain should return the calculated soil loss back to acceptable levels as long as no other changes have been made in the rotation.

Other Corrections (in Version 18)

Likewise, soybean straw removal was added to fix its omission from the RUSLE2 template for Winter Rye (forage) to Soybeans g+s for all soybean row widths.

General fixes

•More accurate averaging of nutrients applied via partial-field applications

•Improved handling of applications when fields are merged

Known Issues in 18.0

None as of this release