Our staff record and field verify state-funded and farmer-funded conservation practices in the Vermont Partner Database throughout the year. These practices include cover cropping, rotational grazing, no-till planting, manure injection, no-till pasture and hayland renovation, and crop to hay.
This effort to record state-funded conservation practices helps farmers enrolled in programs like the Farm Agronomic Practices (FAP) Program receive prompt payments for the practices they have implemented. These payments help to offset some of the associated costs. For cover cropping, this would be seed purchased.
For Cover Cropping, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets’ FAP Program pays $30 per acre for broadcast or inter-seeded, and $45 per acre for drilled or otherwise incorporated. The cover crops need to be seeded at highest recommended rate to provide effective soil coverage during the non-growing season.
We also record practices as farmer-funded when the acreage goes well-beyond what is being covered by a program like FAP, or when farms implement these practices without being enrolled in a program for payment. We’ve found this to be quite common. The data recorded provides the State of Vermont and the EPA with a more accurate picture of the conservation practice acreage being implemented on farms, and the corresponding nutrient reductions into regional waterbodies. This work documents agriculture’s progress toward the Lake Champlain watershed’s clean water goals.
Interested in contributing to our effort? Reach out to Kate Longfield for more information (kate@cvfc-vt.com).
