Farmers for Soil Health

Farmers for Soil Health (FSH) is a nation-wide, farmer-led collaboration between the Soy Checkoff, Pork Checkoff, National Corn Growers Association and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation that assists farmers in implementing and maintaining soil health practices. Within Kansas, the project is led by the Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, the Kansas Soil Health Alliance with support from Kansas Soybean and Kansas Corn.  Technical assistance for the Farmers for Soil Health project is being provided through Heartland Soil Services.  

FSH has multiple avenues to assist growers in introducing cover crops into existing crop rotations. There are several financial incentive options, access to a marketplace connecting farmers to supply chain partners, and local technical assistance to aid in transitioning acres to cover crops and other soil health practices. “This program is unique because it was built by farmers for farmers, and it assists with the cost and learning curve of adopting cover crops,” says Ben West, executive director for Farmers for Soil Health. “We built flexibility into the timing, allowing farmers to enroll their fields before or after planting cover crops.”
 

Program Options:

Transition Incentive Payments:

• Must be new planted acres. Field acres cannot have been planted to cover crop in the previous year.
  • Exceptions:
    • previous covers did not meet NRCS specs.
    • acres planted to covers in previous year that met NRCS specs, but were completed by a different operator. 
• $50 per acre incentive payments
• Farmers can enroll a maximum of 1000 acres
• Enrolled acres cannot overlap with any federal funded programs (EQIP, CSP, RCPP)
• Must include corn or soybeans in the rotation
• Acres enrolled will need to be planted to cover crops for three consecutive years.
  • year one payment is $25 per acre
  • year two payment is $15 per acre
  • year three payment is $10 per acre

Signing Incentive Payments:

• Payment on fields where cover crops were planted in the previous year that meet NRCS specifications
• $2 per acre incentive payments
• Farmers can enroll a maximum of 200 acres
• Enrolled acres cannot overlap with any federal funded programs (EQIP, CSP, RCPP)
• Must include corn or soybeans in the rotation

Enrollment for both levels of incentive payments can be completed fully online.

Program Goals: 

The program aims to improve soil health by doubling the adoption of cover crops to reach 30 million U.S. acres by 2030. Incentive payments are supported by a $95 million USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant. During the program’s three years, Kansas has a goal of enrolling 37,400 acres in the program. To reach this goal FSH recognizes the benefit of having access to local techincal assistance available for producers.  County conservation districts and Heartland Soil Services are both available to aid in selecting the proper cover crops as well as answering technical and enrollment questions.  More information and enrollment information can be found on the Farmers for Soil Health website:  https://farmersforsoilhealth.com/ 
 

Questions?

Contact your local Conservation District for program information and how to enroll, or contact