- What is the grant?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its commitment to supporting a diverse range of farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners through the Partnerships for ClimateSmart Commodities program, which awards grants for eligible climate projects. USDA believes this effort will expand markets for America’s climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers. In September 2022, Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program awarded DFA a grant. Details of the grant are still being finalized, but it includes up to $45 million in funding for DFA’s proposed pilot project, which includes on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction strategies paired with low-carbon, consumer-facing dairy products select milksheds.

- Who is eligible to participate in DFA’s pilot project funded by the grant?

Milksheds supplying three DFA manufacturing plants have been selected:

• Garden City, Kan.
• Franklin, Mass.
• Bridgeton, N.J.

Any interested DFA farmer-owner shipping into one of these plants will be considered for participation and funding. Milksheds supplying these plants include farmers in Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont.

- How were these milksheds chosen?

In evaluating milksheds, DFA was driven by two important goals:

1. Ensure the pilot project provides opportunities for DFA farmer-owners of diverse sizes, geographies, management practices and backgrounds
2. Identify milksheds where market research determined that customers and consumers may be interested in purchasing low-carbon dairy products for a premium price Connecting the on-farm GHG emission reduction strategies directly to the low-carbon dairy marketing actions will allow DFA to test the economic viability of this approach across the entire value chain from farm to table. Similarly, learning and success will create opportunities to replicate the pilot project in additional geographies over time.

- How will farms in selected milksheds learn more about this opportunity?

As soon as details are finalized, DFA will organize fields days and listening sessions for interested members in eligible geographies. This will give DFA farmer-owners the opportunity to learn more about the opportunities this grant may generate for their operations.

- What will the funds be used for?

There are three on-farm priority areas, including:

1. Accelerating regenerative agriculture
   • Improving soil health in ways that make soil absorb and hold carbon
2. Reducing enteric methane emissions
   • Adapting the ration to increase feed efficiency and reduce gases from the digestive process
3. Optimizing manure management
   • Storing, treating and applying manure in ways that reduce gas emissions and maximize manure's nutrient and organic matter benefits for soil.

Funding will go toward on-farm incentive and cost-share programs on a range of practices and technologies, along with leveraging the expertise of technical service providers to consult directly with farms.

Technical experts will work in collaboration with farms to understand their current operation and what types of new practices and technology fit each farm’s unique attributes. Funding opportunities could include any of the following, but not limited to:

• incentives for cover cropping
• crop rotations
• conservation tillage
• replacing synthetic fertilizer with dairy manure
• regenerative pasture practices
• optimizing forage quality
• utilizing emission-reducing feed additives
• carbon-reducing nutrient management plans
• technologies such as solid-liquid separators

- What is the timeline for this pilot project?

DFA is still in the negotiation phase with USDA to determine the final award package. We hope to begin recruitment in the pilot project in the first quarter of 2023.

- What if I already use a different software tool?

No problem. You have at least two options:

1. Almost every farming application lets you export field boundaries as shapefiles. You can do so and then easily import them into MyFarms. Our support team would be glad to help.
2. The entire N Economics toolset is also available as a plugin (more precisely, a web service), which means it could be embedded in the software you currently use. If you would like to ask your software provider to install this plugin, please click “GET STARTED” and let us know.

- Will you sell my data?

No, not ever. MyFarms was built by fourth generation corn farmers without any outside investors, which means two things:

1. We not only know, but fiercely agree, that on-farm data must be kept private
2. We cannot be compelled by outside investors to bend on this principle, because we have no outside investors.

If you want to discuss this very important subject with our Managing Director, Chris Fennig, just click "GET STARTED" and let us know.

- What if I have a new question?

We would love to hear from you! Please either click "GET STARTED" and include your question in the "Notes" field, or submit the form below.