Manure has been land applied for centuries as a replenishment of nutrients removed with crop harvest, and to improve soil productivity. Manure contains all plant essential nutrients, and is therefore a complete crop nutrient resource. Use as a replacement for commercial fertilizer however, can be complicated due to unique manure characteristics and application uncertainties. These include multiple nutrient forms, variation in nutrient content ratios, nutrient analysis variation, diff erences between manure sources in crop nutrient availability, and application control and variability. Because of these issues, manure must be viewed and managed diff erently than fertilizer nutrient sources. In addition, management of manure as a nutrient resource has improved over time, and as applications are targeted more closely to crop needs, the aforementioned issues make further improvement in management increasingly challenging. This fact sheet will review some of the characteristics of fertilizer and manure, and implications for nutrient management. Fertilizers commonly