Paul Sheath is the head of Climate Smart Agriculture at ADM and when he starts talking about the first pilot programme into regenerative agriculture back in De Moines, Iowa, in 2012 he says “obviously we paid the farmer”.
The Irish Farmers Journal met Paul at ADM’s US headquarters in Decatur, Illinois back in May.
It was refreshing to hear because while it is obvious to ADM that it needs to pay the farmer for implementing these farming practices, it is not obvious to all companies.
Some regenerative agriculture programmes currently being set up in Ireland are not paying the farmer and while they might in time, the extra work which is doing good for the environment and these company’s emissions and sustainability scores is not being rewarded.
In the early days of ADM’s programme, the focus was on field boundaries, conservation agriculture and crop yields, Paul explained. The pilot programmes allowed for five to six years of data to be collected on water quality, soil erosion, biodiversity, irrigation, land use change and carbon intensity.
One common measure in the programme is reduced tillage or no tillage to prevent carbon loss from the soil.
We often associate US farming with reduced tillage and cover crops. Paul commented that, in 1980, only about 2m acres were in no-till systems.
Now that figure is about 102m acres and you see this on the roads with crops planted into maize stubble.
With 300m acres of principal crops, that means one-third of crops are under no-till in the US. However, Paul said intervention was needed to get it this far and private funding was important to accelerate the process.
Siobhán Walsh, Stefan Fiedler of ADM and Aidan Brennan at ADM's Decatur facility.
Another key measure in the programme is planting cover crops. Less than 1m acres of cover crops were planted in the US before the year 2000. Now, that area is about 20m acres.
When it comes to signing farmers up to ADM’s regenerative agriculture programme – Re:generations – Paul explained that getting farmers on board was not always easy. Regenerative agriculture or sustainability programmes mean data collection to show progress and ultimately to measure carbon emissions reduction and carbon storage to allow credits to be calculated or emissions reduction to be measured.
In 2017, the Practical Farmers of Iowa came on board. The state of Iowa plants the most cover crops in the country and essential to this is regional and locally specific advice. Having that data was essential to show results from early pilots to bring new farmers on board.
One farmer we visited taking part in the programme plants a cover crop in his soybean crop before harvest using a plane.
This was important and another great step was a data collection partner.
Farmers taking part in ADM’s programme only spend about 45 minutes in total over the year providing data.
In 2021, the company started to set more aggressive targets. The aim in 2021 was to have 1m acres in the scheme and 1.2m were reached. It reached its target of 2m acres in 2022 and almost 2.8m acres in 2023.
Big increases
ADM is a global company and the US is the main stay of the acres in the programme, still at about 2m acres, but in 2023 big increases were seen in Poland, the UK, Brazil and India. The aim is to increase the area in Europe in the next five years.
Along with this, ADM has now trained over 900 employees on sustainability. This is two days of in-person training.
These soybeans were direct-drilled.
The five principles of the programme globally are:
Minimum disturbance tillage.Maintain living roots in the soil.Diverse crops or edge of field practices.Always cover bare soil.Efficient use of inputs.Ease of data collection.Something that stood out on this programme was data collection and the short time it takes to collect the data.
A total of 45 minutes to collect data is small in comparison to other programmes and this is important as if data collection is too laborious, then farmers may not take part. Data can be collected from machinery and GPS equipment as well as computer programmes used to keep crop records.
One barrier to some programmes in Ireland at the minute is data collection. It is taking large amounts of time. Depending on the programme it could be taking half a day or a day to input details. This is due to a number of factors, among them is the fact that very few farmers use recordkeeping programmes for crops and even fewer account for fuel use, fungicides and fertiliser in the same place.
Farmers need to look through accounts and allocate fuel use to each crop for example.
A few weeks ago, we reported from Evan Leeper’s Farm in Springfield, Illinois. Evan takes part in ADM’s Re:Generations programme.
One measure he was very happy with from the programme was cover crops, as it protected his soil and helped him to work ground earlier in wet seasons.
He flew a plane over his soybean crops before harvest to spread the cover crop seed as he says the crops need to be in by 1 September.
The debris from the corn can be seen on the soil where these soybeans were direct-drilled.
Payments for sustainability practices
Farmers are paid in the programme based on measures which they implement on farm.
Payments for each measure vary between locations and depending on time in the programme. We visited the state of Illinois. In this state, farmers growing corn (maize), soybeans, wheat, canola (oilseed rape) and peanuts can take part. Some of the measures and payments available under the programme are detailed below
Cover crops
Farmers who entered the programme in 2023 or 2024 will be paid $25/ac for growing cover crops. These crops cannot be in a federally funded programme as well. Those who entered the programme from 2018 to 2022 are paid $15/ac. This crop can be in another federally funded programme.
Carbon score
Farmers who establish a carbon intensity score for their operation can be paid another 2c/bu on corn and another 5c/bu on soybeans. If farms achieve a score below the average for the local area, then they can receive a premium of 7c/bu on soybeans and 8c/bu on corn.
No-till
Farmers establishing wheat using no-till or strip-till can be paid $2/ac in the programme and these fields can be in a federally funded programme.
Living
root
Farmers who maintain a living root in the fields where their wheat is grown for the year can be paid $3/ac. So, a crop would have to be growing all year round in the field.
Nitrogen use
Farmers who measure their nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) on their wheat crops can receive payments. The NUE is measured by dividing the amount of nitrogen applied by the yield in 2024. $5/ac can be paid for a score of 1.20, $2/ac for a score of 1.21-1.40. No payment is made at a score of over 1.40.
Nitrogen
management
Farmers who implement the 4R programme on their farm which means applying nitrogen at the right rate, from the right source, at the right time and at the right placement on their 2024 harvested wheat can be paid $5/ac.
Deadlines
Farmers need to meet deadlines to sign up for the programme, confirm acres in the programme, to complete data collection and will then receive payments.
There are dedicated staff in the programme to work with growers and the American Farmland Trust is a technical assistance partner.
The programme is now well established and well organised. Payments are clear and requirements are outlined. It is a model for Irish and European countries to look at.
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company is a food processing and commodity trading business.It is paying farmers to measure carbon emissions and carbon storage on their farms.This will help farmers to move to regenerative farming practices, while also helping to reduce emissions for customers.The company is focused on maintaining production levels on farms while implementing more environmentally sustainable farming practices.Having local, region-specific data to back up the management practices being implemented is essential to get more farmers involved in the programme.Data collection is relatively simple for the farmer in the US, which is a big help in getting farmers to take part.
Paul Sheath is the head of Climate Smart Agriculture at ADM and when he starts talking about the first pilot programme into regenerative agriculture back in De Moines, Iowa, in 2012 he says “obviously we paid the farmer”.
The Irish Farmers Journal met Paul at ADM’s US headquarters in Decatur, Illinois back in May.
It was refreshing to hear because while it is obvious to ADM that it needs to pay the farmer for implementing these farming practices, it is not obvious to all companies.
Some regenerative agriculture programmes currently being set up in Ireland are not paying the farmer and while they might in time, the extra work which is doing good for the environment and these company’s emissions and sustainability scores is not being rewarded.
In the early days of ADM’s programme, the focus was on field boundaries, conservation agriculture and crop yields, Paul explained. The pilot programmes allowed for five to six years of data to be collected on water quality, soil erosion, biodiversity, irrigation, land use change and carbon intensity.
One common measure in the programme is reduced tillage or no tillage to prevent carbon loss from the soil.
We often associate US farming with reduced tillage and cover crops. Paul commented that, in 1980, only about 2m acres were in no-till systems.
Now that figure is about 102m acres and you see this on the roads with crops planted into maize stubble.
With 300m acres of principal crops, that means one-third of crops are under no-till in the US. However, Paul said intervention was needed to get it this far and private funding was important to accelerate the process.
Siobhán Walsh, Stefan Fiedler of ADM and Aidan Brennan at ADM's Decatur facility.
Another key measure in the programme is planting cover crops. Less than 1m acres of cover crops were planted in the US before the year 2000. Now, that area is about 20m acres.
When it comes to signing farmers up to ADM’s regenerative agriculture programme – Re:generations – Paul explained that getting farmers on board was not always easy. Regenerative agriculture or sustainability programmes mean data collection to show progress and ultimately to measure carbon emissions reduction and carbon storage to allow credits to be calculated or emissions reduction to be measured.
In 2017, the Practical Farmers of Iowa came on board. The state of Iowa plants the most cover crops in the country and essential to this is regional and locally specific advice. Having that data was essential to show results from early pilots to bring new farmers on board.
One farmer we visited taking part in the programme plants a cover crop in his soybean crop before harvest using a plane.
This was important and another great step was a data collection partner.
Farmers taking part in ADM’s programme only spend about 45 minutes in total over the year providing data.
In 2021, the company started to set more aggressive targets. The aim in 2021 was to have 1m acres in the scheme and 1.2m were reached. It reached its target of 2m acres in 2022 and almost 2.8m acres in 2023.
Big increases
ADM is a global company and the US is the main stay of the acres in the programme, still at about 2m acres, but in 2023 big increases were seen in Poland, the UK, Brazil and India. The aim is to increase the area in Europe in the next five years.
Along with this, ADM has now trained over 900 employees on sustainability. This is two days of in-person training.
These soybeans were direct-drilled.
The five principles of the programme globally are:
Minimum disturbance tillage.Maintain living roots in the soil.Diverse crops or edge of field practices.Always cover bare soil.Efficient use of inputs.Ease of data collection.Something that stood out on this programme was data collection and the short time it takes to collect the data.
A total of 45 minutes to collect data is small in comparison to other programmes and this is important as if data collection is too laborious, then farmers may not take part. Data can be collected from machinery and GPS equipment as well as computer programmes used to keep crop records.
One barrier to some programmes in Ireland at the minute is data collection. It is taking large amounts of time. Depending on the programme it could be taking half a day or a day to input details. This is due to a number of factors, among them is the fact that very few farmers use recordkeeping programmes for crops and even fewer account for fuel use, fungicides and fertiliser in the same place.
Farmers need to look through accounts and allocate fuel use to each crop for example.
A few weeks ago, we reported from Evan Leeper’s Farm in Springfield, Illinois. Evan takes part in ADM’s Re:Generations programme.
One measure he was very happy with from the programme was cover crops, as it protected his soil and helped him to work ground earlier in wet seasons.
He flew a plane over his soybean crops before harvest to spread the cover crop seed as he says the crops need to be in by 1 September.
The debris from the corn can be seen on the soil where these soybeans were direct-drilled.
Payments for sustainability practices
Farmers are paid in the programme based on measures which they implement on farm.
Payments for each measure vary between locations and depending on time in the programme. We visited the state of Illinois. In this state, farmers growing corn (maize), soybeans, wheat, canola (oilseed rape) and peanuts can take part. Some of the measures and payments available under the programme are detailed below
Cover crops
Farmers who entered the programme in 2023 or 2024 will be paid $25/ac for growing cover crops. These crops cannot be in a federally funded programme as well. Those who entered the programme from 2018 to 2022 are paid $15/ac. This crop can be in another federally funded programme.
Carbon score
Farmers who establish a carbon intensity score for their operation can be paid another 2c/bu on corn and another 5c/bu on soybeans. If farms achieve a score below the average for the local area, then they can receive a premium of 7c/bu on soybeans and 8c/bu on corn.
No-till
Farmers establishing wheat using no-till or strip-till can be paid $2/ac in the programme and these fields can be in a federally funded programme.
Living
root
Farmers who maintain a living root in the fields where their wheat is grown for the year can be paid $3/ac. So, a crop would have to be growing all year round in the field.
Nitrogen use
Farmers who measure their nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) on their wheat crops can receive payments. The NUE is measured by dividing the amount of nitrogen applied by the yield in 2024. $5/ac can be paid for a score of 1.20, $2/ac for a score of 1.21-1.40. No payment is made at a score of over 1.40.
Nitrogen
management
Farmers who implement the 4R programme on their farm which means applying nitrogen at the right rate, from the right source, at the right time and at the right placement on their 2024 harvested wheat can be paid $5/ac.
Deadlines
Farmers need to meet deadlines to sign up for the programme, confirm acres in the programme, to complete data collection and will then receive payments.
There are dedicated staff in the programme to work with growers and the American Farmland Trust is a technical assistance partner.
The programme is now well established and well organised. Payments are clear and requirements are outlined. It is a model for Irish and European countries to look at.
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company is a food processing and commodity trading business.It is paying farmers to measure carbon emissions and carbon storage on their farms.This will help farmers to move to regenerative farming practices, while also helping to reduce emissions for customers.The company is focused on maintaining production levels on farms while implementing more environmentally sustainable farming practices.Having local, region-specific data to back up the management practices being implemented is essential to get more farmers involved in the programme.Data collection is relatively simple for the farmer in the US, which is a big help in getting farmers to take part.
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