Standard N fertiliser best practice (BMP) guidelines were first developed in 1996, then updated in 2001 based on outcomes of the project "Best management practices for N in intensive dairy production systems (Project no DAV413)". While most of these BMPs are based on well-established local and international research, they had not been evaluated across the range of soil types, climates, farm systems and forage types in the Australian dairy industry.

This project aimed to use whole farm systems modelling to test if the current best practices for N management on dairy farms improve productivity and limit potential environmental impacts across a wide range of bioclimates, soils and common pasture species used in the grazing based dairy industries of southern Australia.