Environmental Quality Incentives Program

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So originally in RPP, which is natural in our, uh, conservation stewardship program, CSP, that is the traditional whole farm plan program required by the agency that typically once somebody gets comfortable with EQIP, they then look at that larger operation.

That's the Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, Colton Buckley.

The big thing that we want to use the Regenerative Pilot Program for, Tony, is the off-ramp to support producers from the traditional way of, uh, doing things to help in that aspect of supporting natural vitality.

And so in lowering that total, um, threshold from a hundred percent to seventy-five percent will open the door to a lot of producers to support more of the program on their property.

So that's lowering the threshold, but what about adding more money for conservation?

So these programs outside of RPP, but particularly in the Regenerative Pilot Program, are on a rolling basis for EQIP and CSP.

So I encourage all producers that are listening and watching to head over to your local NRCS, uh, service center or, or field office to visit with them about, uh, the program.

I mean, there's innumerable cases of low quality woodlands that to clear require significant resources and requires a wealthy landowner that's willing to put a significant amount of capital to feel better about the ecology, to put it bluntly, because there's often not a financial or economic reason to do so.

And so this is like a problem that I think about a lot is like, how can we create incentives? Like, for example, one of the things we've been brainstorming recently is the NRCS has created an EQIP program for adding biochar to soil, and the payment rates are pretty significant, and they want a ton, 2,000 pounds of biochar per acre, and that can be spread on agricultural land, it can be spread on pasture land, it can be spread on Woodland land.

And so we've been sort of I'm working with some fabricators to build like modular biochar kilns that we can bring out to sites because that'll at least pay for a chunk of the cost of clearing out these woodlands.

And then you can put the put the carbon back in the soil kind of where it belongs.

... barn construction update, but it is fun.

You know, if anybody's looking at having a, looking at projects to get done, I don't know if the, uh, if the NRCS EQIP application window is still open.

I want to say like, I, and I think it changes county to county just depending on where you're at, but like I think November I saw here in Ohio, um, was one of the deadlines.

And it, it is something that I know Tom has benefited from immensely.

Um-

Yeah

... you need to go to your NRCS office and you need to tell them you're interested in an EQIP grant, and this is what you want the grant for.

Um, they'll tell you right away whether that would qualify or not, but, you know, fencing, uh, waterers, um, you know, uh, that covered heavy use area, that kind of thing is typically what, what it's used for.

Looking into some USDA news, USDA is expanding its regenerative pilot program, increasing funding to $1 billion for 2027, announced via a press release this week.

The program will provide about $650 million through EQIP and thir- $350 million through the Conservation Stewardship Program to help farmers and ranchers improve soil health, water quality, and long-term farm resilience.

USDA is also lowering the CSP resource concern threshold from 100% to 75% and giving states more flexibility to prioritize locally relevant conservation practices.

More than 5,100 contracts totaling about $851 million were funded through the program last year.

However, conservation advocates say demand already exceeds available funding.

Rebecca Bartels with Invest in Our Land says the program is good news, but concerns remain because EQIP and CSP could face cuts under a Senate Farm Bill proposal.

She says USDA also needs enough staff to help producers access this funding.

USDA says additional technical assistance and a streamlined application process will help, with producers able to apply through their local NRCS office.

But we, uh, we pretty much, I don't know, for...

We, we were running projects with, with NRCS and with, with fencing and, and, uh, pasture rotation and stuff for quite a few years 'cause I think I said we've only been here about 27 years, so- Maybe the last six or seven I was like, "Well, we can step back and, and, and we're doing all right." And because it's kind of a competitive thing for EQIP and, and WHIP projects and, and, and some of that, and it's like let some other people starting out, you know, be more enjoyable of the money because we're doing okay now.

Okay.

I've got that.