Get Paid for Soil and Water Outcomes with Cover Crops

0:00 [Music]

0:05 Hey everybody Keith Burns with Green Cover. This is another in our series of videos where we're talking about opportunities for farmers to get some funding to help with cover crops and soil health practices and I have with me here Adam Keel. Adam is with the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund, one of the major climate smart commodity grants. So Adam thank you for joining and tell us a little bit about the soil and water outcomes fund.

0:32 Yeah thanks for having me. So the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund first started in 2019 and provides financial payments to farmers for producing environmental outcomes and you might ask what is that. So a little different than what farmers maybe are.

0:50 Used to seeing with cost share for practices. We provide payment to farmers based on the environmental attributes that they create as a result of what they do and how they farm. So if a farmer implements cover crops and reduces soil or implements no till, they're going to produce water quality outcomes. They're going to produce greenhouse gas reductions and removals, and we're going to pay you for those outcomes. And the more outcomes you produce, the more potential payment there is.

1:21 So we're currently operating across all Midwestern states, and in those states our average payment so far this year has been around $34 an acre. But of course that varies based on the outcomes that are produced per.

1:38 Acre yeah and first of all I love the concept as well as the name because that's what we should be doing. We should be rewarding on outcomes and not just on practices intentions.

1:55 Are is this eligible for only new practices or can if I as a farmer be rewarded for some of the outcomes I'm doing but it's a practice I've been already doing for a while? Yeah so we do have a new practice requirement but it's on the field level. So if a farmer's been doing, you know, to use an example of cover crops, cover crops on half their field or half the rotation, can always look at adding new fields in that haven't had cover crops before or looking at adding cover crops.

2:27 To both sides of a crop rotation if it's a corn soybean rotation or other rotations within the cropping system within a field also are eligible if there's additions being made.

2:40 Yeah so changing the rotation and getting more cover crops in can qualify. How about if I just been using say a monoculture cereal rye but now I want to kind of up that game a little bit and go to a multi-species mix, does that count as a new practice?

2:54 Yeah, that's something we would definitely be able to run through and see what the outcome comes are. We are kind of at the mercy of some of the environmental models and tools that we use. Oftentimes some of those tools don't have the depth of being able to distinguish between.

3:13 Cover crop single species and cover crop multi-species but we'll do the best we can to get that in but that would qualify the pro in the program. In terms of what the outcomes are we'd have to run that scenario and see what the outcomes are and the associated payments.

3:32 Bigger points or payments for things that over winter the well managed grazing and things like that as well, all those exactly, yep exactly. And when you start putting things together like reduction in tillage and cover crops or looking at expanded crop rotations and cover crops, things in combination are also going to get you the higher payments as well.

3:58 Having more cover on the ground during more times of the year, having a more diverse cropping system, those things are all going to produce more environmental outcomes and thus drive your payment higher.

4:12 So tell us a little bit about the sign up process if somebody's interested or at least they want to get more information to see if they qualify, what do they, how do they go about doing that?

4:23 Yeah, the first step would be to visit our website, theoutcomesfund.com. There you can create a user account. At that point you'll be contacted by one of our field team members, and you know, you mentioned Connor earlier in the conversation, we've got field team members across the Midwest who their...

4:41 Sole job is to help farmers enroll in the program. So you'll get in touch with one of our field team members, they can help you. We can help you through the enrollment process. We're going to need field boundaries and some operational data. We can do that with you. If you're comfortable with that, you can do it on your own. We find that most people like a little help, so our field team is out there to help. Typically, within a few days after submitting your application, you're going to get a payment estimate. At that point, you can either accept or reject that estimate. And if you accept it, then we're going to send you a contract for one year that you can sign, and we operate on one-year contracts.

6:02 The contract because, you know, there's nothing wrong with a multi-year contract as long as you understand that's what you're going into, but there's a lot of flexibility with the one year. And yeah, I can vouch for the fact I'm working with a couple of customers in South Dakota and got connected with Connor, and so I know that there's assistance and helping through the sign up process because, you know, to be honest, that's one of the barriers to getting into these. If a farmer says, 'Ah, it's just going to be so much work to do this and to apply,' and you know, there are some programs that are really burdensome to sign up for, but it's good to hear that this one isn't so bad and plus.

6:41 There's technical assistance to help with the sign up process. Yeah, we've got people. You mentioned Connor, we've got multiple people in Iowa, people in North Dakota, Minnesota, other states. Yeah, their sole job is to help with enrollment. And yeah, he on programs having a burden, I hope that we're not one of those programs, but you know by providing staff to help through that process we can hopefully lessen the burden. We've also got connections with John Deere Ops too and I know a lot of farmers use John Deere Ops and we can port in data from op Center fairly easily, so again things like that to help streamline the enrollment process. We're trying to advance that every day.

7:25 Can make the experience the best possible for farmers. Yeah, that's great. And so basically if you're in any of the major corn and soybean type states, you're eligible for this program, right?

7:38 Exactly, yeah. Part of what we do with the program is we want to build the demand and financial support before we start contacting farmers. So for every acre that enrolls, we've got a funder, if you will, or a partner that's on the backend with their checkbook ready to write the check. And any of those eligible areas you see on our website are areas where we've got that funding secured. So we're not out there speculating that hey, let's sign up farmers and then we'll find people to pay for those outcomes. We've got all.

8:10 That lined up and we know where those buyers have interest. And as you mentioned, the main corn and soybean areas of the Midwest are all eligible, and you'll see that enrollment area map on our website too. If you go there you can just double check to make sure you're in one of those eligible areas.

8:27 All right, so folks, great opportunity if you're interested. Go to the outcomes fund.com and you can get all the information there and you can get started and get signed up and have someone reach out to you to help answer any questions you have. Adam, thank you so much for taking the time to join us, and we hope hopefully we can send a bunch of people over.

8:49 Awesome. Thank you, Keith. All right, thank you.