Correlates of plant nutrient use among Ohio farmers: Implications for water quality initiatives

Data were collected from 1,305 land owner-operators in the Scioto River watershed in Ohio to assess plant nutrient use at the farm level. The theoretical perspective used to guide the study was formulated from selected components of social learning theory and the farm structure model. Nutrient use was operationalized as pounds of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium applied per acre for corn, soybeans and wheat. The variance in nutrients per acre was regressed against selected predictive variables. Characteristics of the farm enterprise and measures of learning experiences were used as predictive variables to examine the merits of the theoretical perspective used to guide the investigation. While the study findings were consistent with research expectations, the amount of explained variance demonstrated that the theoretical model had limited utility for predicting nutrient application rates at the farm level. The research findings are discussed in the context of future resource conservation efforts in the study region.