To create your own farm-specific Best Management Practices (BMP) document use our BMP template, a Microsoft Excel file in macro format (.xlsm).

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer as your browser, you may have trouble opening the Excel macro file.  Try using a different browser (Mozilla Firefox, Safari) or save the file to your computer and then open it from within Microsoft Excel.

When Excel attempts to open the file, you may see a dialog box that says, “Security Warning – Macros have been disabled,” or "This file contains Visual Basic macros." Click on the options block just to the right and select “Enable this content,” and click OK; or click on Open (don't remove macros) and the file should open correctly.  Remember to save in the excel-macro format.

On the form, every line with an X in the first “Use” column will appear in the final document.  We have put X’s in this column for all of the main headings in the BMP document and for the general description of what is covered in that section.  It's up to individual farms to select the specific elements that describe practices on those farms or to modify the language in these elements or to write new ones.

Elements (rows) pre-selected can be de-selected by removing the X in the appropriate column. Once this template has been completed:

Ctrl+Shift+P creates a printer-friendly document

Ctrl+Shift+R returns you to the “check sheet”

Ctrl+Shift+S opens a new workbook with the finished document.

This document can’t be converted back to the “check sheet,” which is why it opens as a new document vs. overwriting the original.