Farmers for Soil Health offers financial, technical assistance

DECATUR, Ill. — Farmers in 20 states can now enroll in cost-share programs for cover crop adoption through Farmers for Soil Health.

The initiative is a collaboration between the National Corn Growers Association, National Pork Board and United Soybean Board, in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities.

The program establishes financial and technical assistance for corn and soybean farmers who adopt cover crops.

The focus is to bring money directly back to farmers where sustainability is happening at the farm level.

Participating farmers who plant cover crops will receive payments to help transition totaling $50, spanning three years, per new acre of cover crops planted. Payments of $2 per acre are available for up to 600,000 acres of existing cover crops.

Eligible farmers will participate in measurement, reporting and verification to highlight progress toward the goal of expanding adoption of cover crops.

“Protecting the soils we farm is so important. Cover crops and conservation tillage are key tools that can be used to prevent erosion by keeping living roots in the ground,” said Neal Bredehoeft, USB director and farmer in Alma, Missouri.

“In partnership with my brothers, we have been practicing no-till on our farms for 30 years and using cover crops for almost 10 years. Cover crops are another conservation measure that helps us keep our soils in place and crop nutrients in the fields where they belong.”

Technical Assistance

“The exciting piece is we’re not only providing that financial piece, but the technical assistance that goes along with it,” said Jack Cornell, USB director of sustainable supply.

“We worked with the state commodity groups. Each state commodity group worked and found what technical assistance looks like in that state. We provided some financial support for that technical assistance to go along with the cost-share piece.

“There’s also a third element which is the sustainability marketplace. So, as you sign up for these cost-share opportunities, we’re bringing in buyers from corporations, different companies, that connect directly to the farmers. There’s an opportunity for those corporations to purchase commodities raised under those practices to also enhance that profitability for farmers.

“They can sign up now and it will be implemented in 2024. It’s for the 2024 crop cycle, and you can retroactively sign up your acres. So, go ahead, do your fall plan, and then you can sign up, as well.”

Farmers can enroll at farmersforsoilhealth.com. Farmers in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin are eligible for enrollment.

Easy Sign-up

A hallmark of the program is simplicity of enrollment and monitoring. Farmers will be able to enroll quickly and easily through the online enrollment platform, and all the monitoring and verification is done remotely via satellites.

The initiative’s goal is to advance conservation practices to improve soil health across the United States, including doubling cover crop acres in the nation to 30 million acres by 2030.

The primary purpose is to deliver examples-based, science-focused initiatives recognizing farmers nationwide.

Sustainable crop production is an important part of Bredehoeft’s farming operation.

“We started no-till about 25 or 30 years ago on our farm. We’re in the part of Missouri where there’s highly erodible ground. We have terraces. We’re always fighting soil erosion. The cover crop idea came along, so we started to plant some cover crop on a few acres and saw how it really eliminated soil erosion in those fields. So, we expanded those acres,” he said.

“I think part of what we never expected was the soil health increased. Our organic matter increased by using cover crops. That all goes hand-in-hand with sustainability and how you have the ability to produce crops off that same acre year after year.

“Cover crops have a very important part to get us to that sustainability piece.”

Bredehoeft uses cereal rye and some triticale for cover crops.

‘We did try some other mixes, but we’re in an area where we tried radishes and turnips, but they froze out before they did us any good. So, we’ve been strictly cereal rye and triticale for a number of years now,” he said.

“We tried all kinds of things the first couple of years, but we finally figured out cereal rye was going to get through the winter and a lot of the other things weren’t.”

For those first trying cover crops, Bredehoeft recommends starting with a few acres.

“Don’t throw the whole farm in because it is a little bit of a learning curve. It takes you a couple years, three years, to kind of figure it out. With these technical advisers they’re going to know that, yes, this is going to work or not work in Missouri, for instance,” he noted.

“Just try a few acres and get your feet wet and see where it goes,” he said. “I encourage farmers to go to the website and get some acres signed up. The website is up and running and we’re excited it’s getting going so farmers now have the ability to sign up.”