Participants eligible for up to $25,000 in incentives
North Jersey RC&D is inviting farmers in northern New Jersey to participate in a two-year on-farm trial of innovative cover crop management strategies. Farmers enrolled in the project will try one of the following practices on a portion of their land:
Planting into green cover crop
Roller-crimping cover crop to kill it
Grazing cover crops
As the study progresses, farmers will record what they did and what was the impact on yield; meanwhile, the staff at North Jersey RC&D will collect soil samples to assess the effect the practices had on soil health.
As compensation for trying and evaluating these novel conservation approaches, farmers will receive up to $25,000 in financial incentives! This includes a $1,000 annual stipend for time/labor recording economic and agronomic practices and annual per-acre-payments for every acre enrolled in the study. The grant also provides farmers with a generous equipment incentive budget, to purchase the equipment and supplies they need to be successful, including high-end planter attachments, roller crimpers, as well as fence and waterer supplies for grazing.
The opportunity is open to any farmers, with experience using cover crops, in Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon, Morris and Somerset counties. We are seeking to conduct research on a wide diversity of farms from small vegetable to large grain operations under both organic and conventional management.
The project is funded by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) through the Conservation Innovation Grants, (On-Farm Trials), a new component of the 2018 Farm Bill. We encourage you to take advantage of this unique opportunity to get paid to experiment with some advanced soil health practices. New Jersey farmers haven’t had access to conservation innovation funding at this scale in over 20 years – so don’t miss out.
LEARN MORE AND APPLY at www.northjerseyrcd.org/on-farm-trials. The application only takes a couple of minutes and is completely non-binding.
If you have any questions or would live to learn more please join a short webinar on June 3rd, 2020 at 8:00pm. You can also contact Bridgett Hilshey at 518-623-3173.
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