Preparing Wisconsin’s Farmers for a Climate-Smart Market

This project would advance climate-smart commodity market development by providing direct financial and technical assistance and incentives to support for implementation of climate-smart production. Minority underserved farmers who manage microfarms focused on selling products direct to consumer, through local farm to table restaurants or farmers market can develop a niche climate-smart milk market for selling healthier, higher quality milk at a premium.

• Enrolled farm and field(s) must be located within the 21 counties or a Tribal Nation of the Fox-Wolf Basin:

  • Adams, Brown, Calumet, Columbia, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Forest, Green Lake, Marathon, Manitowoc, Marquette, Menominee, Langlade, Oconto, Oneida, Outagamie, Portage, Shawano, Waupaca, Waushara, and Winnebago Counties. Additionally, Tribal Nations and Reservations located within the Basin are eligible for enrollment. Reservations eligible for enrollment include Menominee, Stockbridge-Munsee, and Oneida Nations.

• While all producers located in counties and Tribal Nations within the Fox-Wolf Basin may participate, enrollment is dependent on the availability of dedicated technical assistance staff to see through the implementation of the project. Priority will be given to producers in Brown, Calumet, Fond du Lac, Outagamie, Shawano, Waupaca, Waushara, and Winnebago counties.

• Producers may not be receiving funding for or be currently implementing incentivized practices on contracted fields.

• Producers must be enrolled with USDA-FSA. FSA Enrollment is required for participation.

  • Technical support to assist with enrollment is available, through this program, by Wisconsin Farmers Union.

• Producers must maintain land control of the contracted fields for the entirety of the contract and provide documentation of lease agreements where applicable.

• Producers must be U.S. citizens and not foreign persons or entities.

• Producers must agree to follow program standards as defined by NRCS related to incentivized practices.

• Producers must be committed to implementing incentivized practices long-term. Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance is seeking producers that are interested in continuing to implement practices after contract ends.

Additionally, ​operations must meet Highly Erodible Land Conservation (HELC) and Wetland Conservation (WC) Certification, Customer Data Worksheet to facilitate the collection of customer data for Business Partner Record, and NRCS Environmental Evaluation CPA-52 Worksheet if applicable.

Contact local Fox-Wolf or County Land Conservation Climate Smart Staff for more information and to determine eligibility.

Choose a Farm Climate Smart Practice from the options below to get started:

• Continuous Cover System

• Conservation Planning

• Wildlife Planting

• Precision Ag Farm Business Planning

Producer Application Packet