The narrow economic margins being faced by agricultural producers and ever-growing concern about agricultural pollution illustrate the role that whole-farm nutrient management (NM) plans need to play in modern agricultural practices. The development and utilization of NM plans within the state of Wisconsin has had limited success. NM plan development can be time consuming and cumbersome depending on the criteria or standards set forth within individual states. To increase the development and implementation of NM plans it is imperative that the private sector (crop consultants, fertilizer dealers, and industry agronomists) as well as farmers, become increasingly involved in NM plan development.