Pork producers in Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri have a grant opportunity in sustainability assisting in climate smart agriculture practices. Jamie Burr, the chief sustainability officer at the National Pork Board, said this grant is focused on a variety of practices including cover crops, livestock integration, conservation tillage, grass buffers, in barn LED lighting and manure management.
“So, for like a second pumping of manure in the fall, we have found that there’s a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by that second pumping,” Burr said. “With this grant, we can also have fencing and pay for livestock inclusion so that the livestock can graze that cover crop. So, there’s more benefit than just you know, the environmental benefit of having the cover crop.”
Burr said this grant and the one being offered by Farmers for Soil Health have similarities.
“So, they could use the Farmers for Soil Health grant to apply for cover crop funding, but then they could also apply for the grant to do manure pumping,” Burr said. “So, it’s not one or the other, they can put those two together and kind of double down if you will, on practices to implement.”
The environmental footprint of pork encompasses sustainability metrics of corn and soybean production.
“So, what these grants do is work with, you know, if a pork producer is also a grain producer, it allows him to just right there on their farm to be effecting environmental outcomes, but it also allows us to work with our supply chain and to provide grant dollars to begin implementing those practices that improve those environmental outcomes,” Burr said.
Enrollment for both grants is open. Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri producers eager to enroll in the National Pork Board-led grant can go to porkcheckoff.org. Farmers from 20 Midwest states interested in learning about cover crops and the Farmers for Soil Health grant can go to farmersforsoilhealth.com.
