Leaders of the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association remain hopeful that a $824,646.00 grant awarded to NCSPA by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will help increase the adoption of cover crops in soybeans and other crops across North Carolina.

The grant was announced in a May 24 news conference at NCSPA headquarters in Raleigh. The Fish and Wildlife grant comes through Farmers for Soil Health (FSH), a national farmer-led program that works for the advancement of soil health through cover crops and other conservation practices. FSH was established in August 2022 as a collaboration between the United Soybean Board, the National Pork Checkoff, and the National Corn Growers Association.

“These three organizations, on a national level, recognized that there’s opportunity for improvement with regard to soil health and conservation, and they pursued and were rewarded with a $95 million grant on a national perspective to further cover crop acres with the hopes of increasing our cover crop acres by 2030 by 30 million acres across the United States,” explained NCSPA research coordinator Jeff Chandler.

Chandler explained that NCSPA applied for a grant through the program with the support of the North Carolina Corn Growers Association and the North Carolina Pork Council. Chandler believes the $824,646.00 grant will be effective in increasing the use of cover crops by North Carolina farmers.

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“This grant will be used to primarily focus on cover crop adoption in North Carolina with a goal to increase our cover crop adoption by 25,000 acres across the state. As another part of that, we are going to be exploring and putting technologies in place that growers will have access to for other climate smart practices that may be beneficial or fit the needs of particular farms across the state,” Chandler said.

A two-part grant

Chandler said the grant will be broken in two parts: An education program through North Carolina State University and North Carolina Cooperative Extension; and a technical assistance program to assist North Carolina farmers in enrollment in a cover crop cost share program.

“Most of the emphasis is going to be around education through NC State Extension, but we are also going to retain some of the grant funds here in house at the Soybean Association to staff a program specialist to provide technical assistance for enrollment and to engage with farmer audiences around the state about the benefits of these programs through Farmers for Soil Health,” Chandler explained.

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“We are going to provide technical assistance to farmers in the state and make sure that if they have an interest and there’s an opportunity that we get them linked up with the cost share assistance program and make sure they have the assistance they need to get connected with these additional resources.”

Through the cost share program, farmers can receive three years of payments for the adoption of cover crops on their farms.

Chandler explained that farmers who are already growing cover crops and enroll in the Farmers for Soil Health program will receive incentive payments of $2 per acre for their cover crop program. For farmers not currently growing cover crops, the program will provide incentive payments of $50 per acre over three years: $25 an acre the first year, $15 an acre the second year, and $10 an acre the third year.

“To clarify, we (NCSPA) are not providing any cost share funds to farmers. The cost share funds come from the $95 million Farmers for Soil Health program grant. What we got is considered a technical assistance grant; there are 12 states that received technical assistance grants that total $13 million,” Chandler said.  “Ours is just technical assistance – education and outreach around these practices. The cover crop cost share funds themselves are administered through the Farmers through Soil Health Program on a national level.”

Extension associate needed

At the news conference, North Carolina State University Extension soybean specialist Rachel Vann said the grant money will be used to hire an Extension associate for conservation agronomy who will develop an educational program to help North Carolina farmers adopt cover crops and other climate-smart practices on their farms.

“This individual will work with faculty expertise across the university, specifically within the NC Plant Sciences Initiative, who are leaders in research in cover crops and other carbon sequestration practices,” Vann explained. “They have done a lot of research and continue to do a lot of research to help make recommendations to farmers on cover crop adoption. But what we really need is someone that is dedicated to educational programming in that space and that is what this program is going to deliver.”

NCSPA board member Trey Liverman, a Columbia, N.C. farmer, who has adopted cover crops on his farm is optimistic the Farmers for Soil Health incentive program will be effective in expanding cover crops across North Carolina. He said he is committed to the use of cover crops for their agronomic and conservation benefits.

“As a farmer we depend on soil health to improve productivity and profitability. Use of cover crops has provided remarkable benefits for us with risk mitigation reduction in weeds population and emergence. Most importantly, soil erosion. This investment will underscore resilient farming practices for us in North Carolina,” Liverman said.