New York State is now well into the second, five-year cycle of the State Pollution Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Implementing this permit has been challenging, but it has proceeded exceedingly well. The vast majority of medium and large CAFOs have developed a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP), and many have implemented numerous structural and managerial practices with more changes scheduled through 2009 and beyond. Reports indicate that farm inspections by personnel from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) find that most operations are making good progress, with some experiencing a few minor, mainly technical violations. Private and public sector planners regularly attend training sessions to keep up to date on the latest developments in CAFO planning, science, and policy. The annual Northeast region Certified Crop Advisor training held in December and the annual Water Quality Symposium in March offer many hours of beginner and advanced CNMP training, including updates on new research, tools for planning, and environmental related sessions. Under the auspices of the Agriculture Environmental Management Program, a strong partnership has developed between the New York State Departments of Agriculture and Markets and Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Cornell University and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), the New York State Soil and Water Conservation Committee, and Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs). It is this partnership that fosters communication links among the organizations so that multiple priorities and perspectives could be balanced.

NRCS standards are central to the CNMP and so to the CAFO permit. They provide a framework for the plan development process. The Nutrient Management Standard (NRCS 590) incorporates by reference Cornell University guidelines for nutrient management and risk assessment indices. Because of this, planning according to land grant guidelines becomes a requirement. Cornell University and NRCS have worked closely over the past several years to integrate the guidelines and risk assessment tools in a relatively seamless fashion. For example, the NRCS 590 standard for nutrient management requires, among other things, that a runoff and leaching risk assessment be performed for each field. The NY P index is used to assess phosphorus runoff risk and the NY N index is used to assess nitrate leaching potential. When the original CAFO SPDES permit was issued, New York did not have a working P index in place. The New York Phosphorus Working Group was formed to address this issue. Members included Cornell faculty and staff from the Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and Biological and Environmental Engineering, staff from the New York City Watershed Agricultural Program, as well as staff from the state Soil and Water Conservation Committee and NRCS. The group worked over a two-year period to mesh field practices with current science to formulate weighting factors that combine to determine the P index runoff risk score for a particular field. Subsequently, private crop consultants and field staff from the Soil and Water Conservation Committee and NRCS helped to field test the P index. The implementation of the index on CAFO farms has been supported by dozens of field training sessions conducted by Cornell staff in collaboration with CCE staff, NRCS and SWCDs, the publication of a P index user's manual, and a downloadable P index spreadsheet calculator. The P index was also build into Cornell Cropware, the software used by many private sector planners and Cornell Cooperative Extension staff, as well as NRCS and SWCD offices for nutrient management planning in New York.

Our experience in NYS has shown that the partnership among the organizations is the foundation for agriculture environmental management for long-term sustainability of the dairy sector and protection of the environment.