ALMA, Mo. – For the past 30-plus years Neal Bredehoeft, a soy checkoff farmer-leader from western Missouri, and his family have practiced no-till as part of their commitment to conserve their century-old farm’s precious soil and water supply. After adding cover crops to half of their acreage around a decade ago, Bredehoeft realized that in addition to preserving his farm’s natural resources there can be financial benefits to adopting sustainable conservation measures.

As a participant in the USDA-supported Farmers for Soil Health (FSH) initiative Bredehoeft is encouraging others to commit to the well-funded program, which offers financial incentives and technical support for farmers looking to transition their production practices.

“This is the second full year of (FSH). We got started a little late last year, but we did get enrollment of 238 farmers and covered about 78,000 acres in several different states. Our goal is to enroll 30 million acres by 2030, which would basically double the amount of cover crops being planted right now,” said Bredehoeft, who was nominated by his soybean checkoff and appointed by the governor to represent Missouri on the United Soybean Board.

Backed by the major corn, soybean and pork commodity groups, FSH is offered through support from the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). Participating farmers who plant cover crops will receive payments totaling $50 per acre spanning three years per new acre of cover crops planted, with awards of $25 during the first year, $20 the second year and $10 the third year. A one-time payment of $2 per acre for farmers with existing cover crops is also offered through the FSH program.

For farmers like Bredehoeft, enrollment in the FSH program provides a financial reward that helps offset the money his family has spent investing in sustainable farm practices such as cover crops.

“We were one of the first to start no-till in our area, really going back to when my dad was farming back in the 1950s. We’re on highly erodible ground so we put grass waterways in, terraces and those things that really helped reduce soil erosion at that time. Over time we did less and less tillage until we finally got to no-till in the early 1990s. This has really helped reduce our soil erosion, but we thought that bringing in cover crops would help us further reduce our erosion – and it has, along with adding organic matter to the ground,” Bredehoeft said.

In addition to payments from the yearly acreage incentive, farmers who participate in the FSH program have an opportunity to be placed with buyers for their crops. “These are buyers who are looking for crops that come off of ground that is sustainably farmed. I think this is an added incentive down the road once you get up and running (with the program),” according to Bredehoeft.

Participating farmers must consent to the measurement, reporting and verification of their cover crops and highlight progress toward the goal of expanding adoption of cover crops to receive payments. There is no cost to producers for verification, which is provided via DTN satellite imagery from GPS coordinates provided by the grower.

Valuable technical assistance is available for all aspects of the program, from filling out forms to deciding which cover crops to utilize and how to terminate them. “I would encourage farmers to enroll just one farm or one field,” Bredehoeft said. “If they’ve never planted cover crops before, this is an ideal chance to try it out. The cost share that’s involved is not going to cover all of your costs, but it will offset those costs. I think there is a real benefit down the road when you look at your soil health over time.”

USDA received over $18 billion in the first round of project proposals for its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, and chose to fund $2.8 billion after the review process was completed, according to the USDA’s website. A second funding pool received $325 million. In all, USDA has received over 1,000 funding proposals from more than 500 group for its PCSC initiative.

The NFWF is participating in the FSH program by providing competitive grants to accelerate the voluntary adoption of cover crops on corn and soybean farms in the program’s 20-state range.

In addition to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, the FSH program is open to farmers in Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Delaware and Wisconsin.

For more information and to learn how to enroll, visit farmersforsoilhealth.com.