Cornell Nutrient Management Spear Program - NMSP

📢 Join us for the annual Animal Science Undergraduate Research Poster Session 🗓️ this Friday, July 31st from 10:30am-1pm in Stocking Hall Atrium! 🎉

🤝 Undergraduate summer researchers working in a variety of Cornell-based and partner programs are excited to share about their experiences this summer, working alongside farmers and seasoned researchers☀️From cattle and horse care to gray parrot calls, manure management, precision agriculture and more. Open to the public, all are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be provided. We’ll see you there! 🎊

https://cals.cornell.edu/events/animal-science-summer-research-poster-session

Flyer and list of presenters ⬇️

Sarah Flanagan was a valued part of our team throughout her undergraduate career 🌱 During her time with us, she found her passion investigating soil health 🪏 She completed her thesis on her work with the Value of Manure project, focusing on the role of microbiology in supporting soil health.

We sat down with Sarah to learn about her next steps and what drove her decisions as an undergraduate. Read on ⬇

Coming full circle: Sarah Flanagan ‘26 strengthens her love of ag What sparked your interest in agriculture?In high school, we did an environmental science program and there was a section on agriculture. As a part of this, we all had to participate in the World Food Prize, where we picked a country experiencing food insecurity, wrote a paper about it and proposed....

📅Coming up this Friday! Register for free to attend our upcoming webinar about potassium management. Link below ⬇️

📢 Register to attend our next Lunch with NMSP webinar on Friday, July 10th, 12pm-1pm EST! This webinar will cover potassium (K) management strategies, the role of K in crop management and more 🌱

There will be ample time for questions and discussion 🗓️ Register for free now: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/myAwLMgJTyy20JxFhGC_EQ #/registration

🔎 A detailed manure crediting system that accounts for recent advances in manure-related technology is important🌱That’s why our team is conducting manure incubation studies, scaling down on-farm research🚜while keeping crucial variables (the soils and manure) the same 📈

This allows us to efficiently test a wide variety of manure sources 🐄 informing the manure crediting system and building a strong foundation for future on-farm research efforts. Read on ⬇️
https://cals.cornell.edu/news/2026/06/incubation-studies-enhance-farm-research-inform-manure-crediting

Incubation studies enhance on-farm research, inform manure crediting On-farm research is a valuable tool for New York farmers. It happens in real-time on farm fields that are actively being cropped, producing practical results that can be applied in future growing seasons. It fosters two-way learning among farmers, farm advisors and researchers, showing the potential...

As part of Cornell University's MPS program, Matthew Haycook worked with professor of whole-farm nutrient management and NMSP lead Dr. Quirine Ketterings on his capstone project: reworking the Northeast Region Certified Crop Advisor (NRCCA) manual. This training manual will support aspiring certified crop advisors when studying for the NRCCA exam.

Read on to learn more ➡️ https://cals.cornell.edu/news/2026/06/empowering-future-crop-advisors-and-leaders-ag-matt-haycook-mps

🌱Meet our interns🤝Abigail White, Dairy Sustainability Intern, and LaCandyce Lee, Precision Agriculture intern! 🎉

📢 Register to attend our next Lunch with NMSP webinar on Friday, July 10th, 12pm-1pm EST! This webinar will cover potassium (K) management strategies, the role of K in crop management and more 🌱

There will be ample time for questions and discussion 🗓️ Register for free now: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/myAwLMgJTyy20JxFhGC_EQ #/registration

🎉 NMSP PhD candidate Gurpreet Kaur recently received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant (TA) award! 🍎 This award recognizes excellence as a TA. Gurpreet has been extremely helpful to the students she works with and has consistently done an outstanding job when it comes to supporting their learning 📚 Congratulations, Gurpreet!

🔎Research reveals a three-year payoff when it comes to nitrogen fertilizer savings and corn yield gains from manure🌱

Read more about the tangible yield benefits and fertilizer savings seen by NMSP’s researchers, learn why this research is important and see how the trials were designed in our most recent What’s Cropping Up? article:

https://blogs.cornell.edu/whatscroppingup/2026/06/08/three-year-payoff-nitrogen-fertilizer-savings-and-corn-yield-gains-from-manure-across-three-trials/

Congrats to our recent grads! 🌎 🎓

Sarah Flanagan, Soil Health research assistant, Value of Manure Project: Flanagan recently defended her honors’ thesis that she completed during her time with us and is going on to study agricultural science in graduate school at Penn State 🎉 🏫

Skylar Cooper, Dairy Sustainability Research Assistant: Cooper is starting vet school at St. George University this coming fall 🎊 🏫

Camron Ray, Dairy Sustainability Research Assistant: Camron Ray will be taking a gap year before attending vet school 🎉 🐄

Ashley Ardila, Dairy Sustainability Research Assistant: Ashley Ardila joined our team this past January and will be continuing with us this year 🎊 🐄

Congratulations, graduates, and thanks for being part of the team! 🌎 🎓