Livestock manure is a rich source of nutrients and organic matter for crop production. However, its agronomic use is typically restricted to fields near production sites due to high transportation costs, particularly for liquid manure with low nutrient density and high moisture content

Many prior tools identify nutrient surpluses and deficits, evaluate separation technologies, or estimate manure-management costs at broader scales (Church et al., 2023; Feng et al., 2023; Lyons et al., 2021). What they less often provide is a direct answer to the question that a producer, broker, or conservation program manager faces in practice: can this product, at this price and this quality, compete with synthetic fertilizer over this hauling distance? 

The framework developed here translates broader nutrient-recovery concepts into transaction-level metrics, including net savings per ha, breakeven hauling distance, maximum viable acquisition price, and the relative return to dewatering versus P₂O₅ enrichment. NutrientChoice is a tool that reproduces all calculations described in Afshar (2026), accepts user-defined inputs for crop P₂O₅ demand, manure composition, moisture content, hauling parameters, and fertilizer prices, enabling real-time exploration of economic thresholds under site-specific conditions.