Box 1. Estimating the environmental outcomes from conservation practices

Significant improvements have been made in the technology, modeling and accounting procedures to estimate and measure many environmental outcomes. Site specific or watershed models can be used to determine the baseline characteristics of a farm (e.g., amount of sediment or nutrients currently leaving a field), while significant research on the efficiency of many BMPs that improve various environmental conditions has been undertaken by universities and government agencies. Standardized methodologies based on these models, accounting procedures and BMP efficiencies can all be packaged into computer-based programs or tools. The increase in computing technology and its widespread availability means that farmers, agricultural consultants and USDA technicians now have greater capacity to utilize models or tools. This will enable the routine and consistent assessment of environmental outcomes.