When sulphur is included in a nutrient management plan (NMP), users may find that it causes a verification failure. This is because typically the amount of sulphur applied to arable crops (often in an N:S product) exceeds the requirement calculated by the RB209. There are a number of possible resolutions which you may find useful, and these are detailed below.
Please remember before proceeding that Farmplan cannot provide agronomic advice. The notes below explain how the program works, and are not an agronomic endorsement of any approach. Use of the nutrient management module and ensuring any plans created are appropriate remains at all times the responsibility of the user.
Option 1 – Don’t include sulphur when creating the nutrient management plan
The failure is caused by the fact that the amount of sulphur applied has exceeded the requirement calculated. If you do not include sulphur when creating the plan, there is no maximum allowed amount calculated, so no exceedance is possible.
Once an NMP has been created in a cropping year, it is not possible to delete the plan or remove nutrients, so this option is not a solution where a plan has already been created including sulphur.
Option 2 – Include sulphur in the plan, and edit the requirement figure
If you wish to include sulphur in your NMP, but you intend to apply a greater amount than calculated by RB209, then you may wish to manually edit the sulphur requirement after it is calculated. After using the RB209 integration to create the NMP, use the edit option to adjust the sulphur figures. For more information on editing an NMP, please see page 21 of the nutrient management guide books (England and Wales or Scotland).
Option 3 – Adjust your verification settings
Sulphur is only checked as part of verification where the option ‘Include Nutrient Management verifying’ is ticked. The verification status of a plan job is controlled via the ‘Plan’ tab; and of a recording job via the ‘Options’ tab.