Due to the growing concerns about water quality in Manitoba, the Manitoba government has proposed two new regulations in regard to manure phosphorus being applied to agriculture land. One regulation is designed to control how much phosphorus is added to land from manure from livestock operations. The second regulation is designed to prevent over-application of nitrogen and phosphorus from all sources of nutrients on all agricultural land in Manitoba. In order to comply, farmers will have to implement beneficial management practices (“BMPs”) tailored to their own farm. Four processes of phosphorous loss include: 1) Loading, the application of phosphorus (usually resulting in surplus phosphorous – especially in livestock operations); 2) Mobilization, when the phosphorus is moved to water by separating the phosphorus from the soil; 3) Delivery, where the BMPs will intercept the delivery of phosphorous; and 4) Impact, which is the deterioration of surface water quality, usually in the form of algae growth. Reducing phosphorous loading is difficult because it is hard to apply manure to meet crop nitrogen requirements without applying excess phosphorous. Therefore, an attempt to minimize the import of phosphorus should be put in place. This includes things such as feed testing more intensively, designing farm-specific diets, minimizing “insurance” amounts of phosphorous, phase feeding, and many more. Phosphorous exports in meat, milk, eggs, and crops should be maximized, which can be done by improving overall crop and animal production efficiency. Phosphorous can also be exported from the farm in manure, where manure phosphorous quantities exceed the land base available for sustainable application. This can be a very expensive option since manure is usually transported in the form of water. Reducing phosphorous mobilization of dissolved phosphorus (solubilized) can be accomplished by reducing overall phosphorous loading, minimizing tillage erosion that loads nutrient-rich topsoil into drains, critically manage high-risk phosphorous solubilization areas, and much more. To reduce mobilization of soil phosphorous, you can reduce phosphorous loading on areas that are susceptible to erosion (via reducing tillage, for example), and eliminate tillage in areas directly adjacent to surface water or within field drains. Work should also be done to reduce the direct addition of fertilizer or manure phosphorous to water. To reduce phosphorus delivery, improve internal drainage within the soils, retain and utilize runoff water, and use a method such as a “Vegetated Buffer Strips” to manage erosion-prone areas.