Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds

Covering America from Coast to Coast

This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets.

Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs.

The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five specialty crops (oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner.

Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups.

Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.