NRCS proposes changes to 48 conservation practice standards, from nutrient management to virtual fence; comments due Oct. 1

Since spring, a coalition of more than 50 farm and agribusiness groups has asked the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to keep its conservation practice standards flexible and to avoid adding unnecessarily prescriptive design rules^{[4, 5]}. The agency’s newest batch, published in the Federal Register on Sept. 1, revises 48 standards at once, including Nutrient Management (Code 590), Pest Management Conservation System (Code 595) and Fence (Code 382), and gives the public until Oct. 1 to comment^[1].

The standards set the minimum technical criteria a practice must meet to do its job, which is why they matter to anyone with an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract or a conservation compliance plan on highly erodible land or wetlands^{[1, 3, 7]}. The notice is docket NRCS-2026-0100, signed by Scott Edwards, NRCS associate chief^[1].

The details: what is in the 48-standard batch

The changes run from wording cleanup to full rewrites. Some standards, including Dry Hydrant (Code 432) and Stormwater Runoff Control (Code 570), get little beyond clarity edits^[1]. Others change how a practice is planned and paid for.

Nutrient Management (Code 590). NRCS says the draft shifts “from plan-centered guidance to a strategy-centered, risk-assessment approach”^[1]. Updated testing guidance focuses on nutrient use efficiency, drinking water and air quality protection, and emerging technology, which the notice names as precision agriculture and biological amendments^[1]. The summary runs two sentences; the draft text is in the docket^[1].

Pest Management Conservation System (Code 595). Two existing purposes are revised, and new criteria are added for USDA organic operations^[1]. The draft also adds requirements tied to ozone nonattainment areas and language on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), water quality and soil health^[1].

Fence (Code 382). The changes “primarily reflect the integration of virtual fence technology,” according to the notice, with added content across several sections^[1]. The purpose statement now says the practice “facilitates, rather than controls, resource management,” and new considerations cover wildlife interactions^[1].

On-Farm Recharge (Code 641). This is a new permanent standard built from interim Code 817, setting criteria for putting surface water on cropland connected to unconfined aquifers while crops are dormant^[1]. NRCS made no changes from the interim version^[1].

Soil Carbon Amendment (Code 336). The draft sets a minimum carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of 20:1, excluding biochar, adds testing timelines and biochar storage rules, and bars application to frozen ground^[1]. It also drops the exclusion on amendments made from crop or woody residues and loosens limits on slopes and high-phosphorus-risk areas^[1].

Other notable changes: High Tunnel System (Code 325) raises the required height for raised planting beds to 18 inches; Sprinkler System (Code 442) adds a variable rate irrigation subsection; and Agrichemical Handling Facility (Code 309) is fully rewritten to allow multi-owner facilities and manufactured sumps^[1].

In the field: who should read which draft

Cattle and forage operations. Beyond Fence, the batch revises Forage Harvest Management (Code 511), Pasture and Hay Planting (Code 512), Brush Management (Code 314) and Heavy Use Area Protection (Code 561)^[1]. The forage harvest draft reorganizes its criteria around the timing of cutting rather than harvest or storage methods, and drops “optimize soil microbial life” as a stated purpose^[1]. The pasture and hay draft tightens guidance on seed quality, planting rates, soil testing and livestock exclusion^[1].

Virtual fence money already flows through paired standards. Agri-Pulse reported in December 2025 that virtual fencing had become eligible for EQIP financial assistance at the start of the federal fiscal year on Oct. 1, with funding available for cross-fencing and prescribed grazing through paired practice standards^[7]. NRCS, the outlet reported, “views virtual fencing as an alternative to interior or cross-fencing, not a replacement for perimeter fencing”^[7]. Collars cost from $18 to $66 each, by one comparison Agri-Pulse cited, and some systems add subscription and base-station fees^[7]. The September draft does not, in NRCS’s summary, address the perimeter question^[1].

Corn, soybean and other row-crop farms. Nutrient Management is the standard most tied to row-crop EQIP contracts here, and the move to a risk-assessment approach is the change to read closely^[1]. Tile-drained ground has its own items: Denitrifying Bioreactor (Code 605) gets updated media criteria, including soil-capped bioreactors and allowable wood species^[1]. Surface Drain, Field Ditch (Code 607) is revised to “eliminate wording that could reclassify actively farmed or maintained drainage areas”^[1]. Contour Farming (Code 330) adds contour marker installation and ties operation and maintenance to the practice’s five-year lifespan^[1].

Irrigated and specialty crops. Microirrigation (Code 441) adds reducing energy use as a purpose and new criteria for gravity-fed drip and container irrigation^[1]. Salinity and Sodic Soil Management (Code 610) adds criteria on choosing crops by salt tolerance^[1]. Windbreak-Shelterbelt Establishment and Renovation (Code 380) moves carbon storage and energy use from its purposes to its considerations; on energy, NRCS says trees and shrubs generally need more than the 15-year practice lifespan to grow tall enough to shade structures^[1].

How did farm groups respond to earlier drafts?

The Agricultural Nutrient Policy Council (ANPC), whose members include the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Corn Growers Association, National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, wrote on April 7 after a March 18, 2026, NRCS meeting that opened early review of draft standards^{[4, 5]}. That letter said the groups generally supported the drafts but cautioned NRCS “to avoid expanding unnecessarily prescriptive design requirements”^[4]. “Maintaining practical, achievable requirements for manure, waste, and nutrient-related practices should be a high priority,” the letter said^[4].

On pest management, the April letter asked NRCS to reconsider “mitigation point tables tied exclusively to implementation of other NRCS standards” and to use performance-based metrics instead^[4]. NRCS’s September summary of Code 595 does not mention those tables, so whether the draft answers that request can only be checked against the docket text^[1].

The council’s July 6 comments on the June batch credited NRCS with adopting some requests, such as changes to Composting Facility (Code 317) and Amendments for Treatment of Agricultural Waste (Code 591)^[5]. It said others were not adopted, including its objection to rules requiring destruction of replaced engines and lighting under the energy standards^[5]. That letter listed 13 standards the coalition had commented on in April that were missing from the June notice^[5]. Comparing that list with the September notice, Pest Management (Code 595) is the only one of the 13 in the new batch^{[1, 5]}.

NRCS gives its own reasons standard by standard. It describes the Brush Management rewrite as producing “more effective, predictable, and longer-lasting treatment outcomes for landowners, partners, and conservation planners,” and the Riparian Forest Buffer draft as making buffers “more achievable, predictable, and impactful”^[1].

On the Hill: what the law requires

No vote is involved. Section 343 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 requires that revisions to state technical guides used for highly erodible land and wetland provisions go out for public comment, according to the notice^[1]. Section 2502 of the 2018 farm bill separately required an expedited review of the standards in effect on Dec. 19, 2018, to find room for flexibility while keeping equivalent resource benefits, NRCS said when it opened that review in 2019^[3].

The September notice is the second batch this year. In June, NRCS proposed changes to 32 standards under docket NRCS-2026-0034, with comments closing July 6^[2]. The National Center for Appropriate Technology described that batch as minor edits touching agroforestry, energy efficiency and waste management standards^[6]. Together the two notices cover 80 standards^{[1, 2]}. None of the sources cited here reports a member of Congress commenting on either batch.

What to watch

• Oct. 1, 2026: comment deadline for docket NRCS-2026-0100; drafts are posted there and on NRCS’s conservation practices page^[1].
• State adoption: State Conservationists who adopt the revised standards will add them to each state’s electronic Field Office Technical Guide^[1]. NRCS has not published a schedule.
• Code 595: whether ANPC or others comment on the mitigation point tables it raised in April^[4].