Missouri CRCL Project – Conservation Fieldscapes | Center for Regenerative Agriculture

Conservation Fieldscapes

Program Description

The Conservation Fieldscapes initiative is a unique pilot program targeting small farms and ranches. Conservation Fieldscapes participants will work with a technical assistance point person to design and implement a conservation fieldscape that includes three or more conservation practices (see list of practices below) implemented on the same area to maximize soil carbon while maintaining productivity. Fieldscape sizes may vary but must be on an area of approximately 1/8 acre (5,445 square feet) or more. Participants in the Conservation fieldscapes program will also participate in virtual cohorts and will contribute to some type of demonstration activity.

Questions about Conservation Fieldscapes may be directed to Kelly Wilson at kellyrwilson@missouri.edu. General questions may also be sent to the Missouri CRCL Project support email at mocrcl@missouri.edu.

Closed for enrollment.

If you are already enrolled, more information about approved practices and the application and award process can be found below!

Program Application

Before you apply, make sure your operation meets the requirements below:
- Farm registered with FSA
- Located in Missouri
- Not a foreign person/entity
- Operational control for 3 years
- Meet USDA small farmer definition
- Produce/sell $1,000+ annually
- 1+ year farming experience OR in training program

If you’d like more information on how to enroll, check out our recorded webinar Let’s Talk Enrollment.

CSF Application 2025_outline Download

Contract structure and payments

Over the course of a 3-year contract, participants will receive a flat rate of $10,000 to implement and maintain their fieldscape. In year 1, they will receive an advanced payment of $5,000 to cover costs of implementing practices. They will receive maintenance payments of $2,500 in years 2, 3. To receive these second two payments, participants will need to provide reporting information as required by USDA.

Conservation Fieldscapes practices

Participants will work with a technical assistance point person to select three conservation fieldscapes from the list below.

Please note:

As per USDA requirements, participants will follow NRCS state practice guidelines for each practice.
USDA requires an approved CPA-52 (environmental evaluation) before we can issue a contract or you can begin implementing practices. This evaluation ensures the practice won’t negatively impact people or the environment. We will submit all necessary information to Missouri NRCS for review—you won’t need to process this yourself. Please allow a few months for completion.

Alley Cropping

An agroforestry practice in which herbaceous crops or forage are grown in combination with trees and/or shrubs. The resulting enhanced diversity and vegetation structure can assist in erosion control, carbon storage, pest control, and income diversification.

Composting Facility

Compost, which is created through aerobic decomposition of organic matter, can be used to improve soil and plant health. Composting is a complex process that requires monitoring ratios of carbon to nitrogen, moisture, aeration, age and temperature.

Conservation Cover

Conservation cover is permanent vegetative cover for various purposes, including soil health, erosion, water quality, and wildlife habitat.

Conservation Crop Rotation

A sequence of a minimum of two crops in the same field over a period of time. Crop rotation affects a plethora of farming aspects, including nutrient management, soil health, income diversity, pest management, and wildlife habitat. Longer and more diverse rotations will amplify those effects.

No Till

Limiting soil disturbance on cropland by not tilling improves soil health, water and wind erosion, and increases moisture availability to plants. Row crops in no-till situations are typically planted with a no-till drill.

Reduced Till

Reducing tillage involves the intensity and/or number of tillage passes across a given field, thus reducing soil disturbance and leaving plant residue on the soil surface. Reduced disturbance improves soil health.

Contour Buffer Strips

Narrow strips of permanent (perennial), herbaceous cover alternating with cropped strips along hills’ contours. Contour buffer strips reduce erosion, improve water quality, and increase water infiltration.

Soil Carbon Amendment

Soil carbon amendments such as compost, biochar, and waste products such as distillation residue, add carbon to soil and can improve soil health and support healthy soil microbiomes.

Cover Crops

Cover crops are planted to provide vegetative cover during the part of the year that cash crows are not being grown. They are an extremely versatile practice with a long list of benefits that includes improving soil health, reducing erosion and fertilizer costs, and providing grazing opportunities on cropland.

Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment

Windbreaks or shelterbelts are “environmental buffers”: rows of trees or shrubs planted to delineate boundaries, provide wildlife habitat and shelter, or to protect or shelter crops, structures, areas and animals.

Silvopasture

Silvopasture systems are designed to manage production of trees, forage, and livestock on the same area. Silvopasture systems support livestock well-being by producing quality forage and providing shade from sun, wind, or storms.

Fencing

Fencing, which can come in many different materials, can control animal movement in ways that increase performance, forage production or quality, reduce erosion and improve water quality.

Riparian Herbaceous Cover

Herbaceous plants managed as the dominant vegetation between upland and aquatic habitats. Riparian herbaceous cover can benefit wildlife and livestock while protecting riparian habitats, reducing erosion, and supporting water quality.

Riparian forest buffer

An area of primarily trees and/or shrubs adjacent to streams, lakes, ponds, wetland, or other bodies of water. Forest buffers can improve riparian habitat and reduce runoff from neighboring fields.

Wildlife Habitat Planting

Establishing herbaceous vegetation or shrubs to provide shelter and food sources for wildlife. Plantings can target a specific type of wildlife or seek to replicate a historical native ecosystem.

Hedgerow Planting

Hedgerows are dense, linear plantings of woody plants and perennial bunch grasses that serve as screens, fences, and habitat for various wildlife. Establishing hedgerows can also reduce erosion and act as a filter for potential pollutants.

Mulching

Mulching involves covering bare soil with plant residues or other materials to reduce exposed soil surfaces. Mulching materials may include straw residue, wood chips, leaves, composted yard waste. Mulching improves soil health and moisture management and can provide weed control.

Pasture and Hay Planting

Well-suited forage species and varieties can improve livestock performance and soil health. Native forages should be considered first.

Prescribed Grazing

Designing a proper grazing scheme can maintain desired plant communities and improve animal productivity. Grazing intensity and timing can be adjusted to attain the desired plant community and livestock production.

Strip cropping

Growing crops in a systematic strip design. Typically, strip cropping alternates crops resistant to erosion with those susceptible to it in strips across a field.

Tree/Shrub Establishment

Establish woody plants in order to control erosion, restore native plant communities, or improve wildlife habitat.

Forest Farming (formerly multi-story cropping)

Forest farming involves managing a tree or shrub overstory along with an understory of woody or herbaceous plants. Like alley cropping, multi-story cropping adds cropping and income diversity.

Example Operational Plan

Each producer in the Conservation Fieldscape program will work with our team of technical advisors to create an operational plan that follows NRCS practice guidelines. You can see an example approved operational plan here.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for any Missouri CRCL Project Inventive payment program producers will be required to meet the following criteria based on the United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS)’s requirements.

General eligibility

You have a Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm number (also including tract and field numbers) established for the land in which you wish to enroll. If you do not have one, learn more about what farm numbers are and how to apply for one.
You have forms AD-2047 and AD-1026 on file with the FSA office. If unsure, contact FSA to either complete, confirm or update these forms.
Confirm that they are a current citizen of the U.S. or a lawful alien possessing a valid I-551 (Form I-551 is the formal designation of a permanent resident card, also known as a Green Card)
Have full operational control of the field they wish (the capacity to independently implement the desired practices and engage in farming activities)
Confirm that they will supply additional farm-level information required by USDA (see Participant Expectations)
Confirm and acknowledge that Missouri CRCL Project incentive payments are funded and processed by the University of Missouri are subject to audit and inspection by the USDA Office of Inspector General and other federal assistance program oversight entities

Conservation Fieldscapes eligibility

Meet USDA’s definition of a small farmer.
Have current access and operational control of at least 1/8 acre (5,445 square feet) of land dedicated to farming for the next three years.
Must have either:
- At least 1 year of experience farming
- Have recently completed or are currently enrolled in a farm apprentice/training program
Must produce $1,000 or more of agricultural products annually
Must be willing to participate in cohort meetings (conducted virtually) for duration of 3-year contract. Cohort meetings will include 1 introduction meeting, quarterly check-in meetings, and 1 conclusion meeting.
Must be willing to participate in at least one demonstration activity (see section titled “Demonstration Activities” below for possible activities).

What is the application and award process?

Applications for the Conservation Fieldscapes program will be open from November 3, 2025 – January 31, 2026. All applicants will use the web-based Missouri CRCL Project Application to create an account and apply for the program. The application is powered by FarmRaise, a digital platform that connects farmers to funding opportunities and financial tracking services. Please note that this is free for CRCL project applicants and a paid membership is NOT required.

The application and award process is:

1. Application

When the application window opens, all applicants will use the Missouri CRCL application to create an account and submit an initial application for this incentive payment program. Applications for the Conservation Fieldscapes program will open between November 3, 2025 – January 31, 2026. We will accept up to 25 participants per year.

As part of the application, participants will identify a technical assistance point person who they will work with throughout the three-year contract (from one of our farm partners, NGOs, MU Extension, or Lincoln University). If they do not have one, they can request that the project help to connect them with someone in their area.

2. Review and follow up

Applicants that meet the eligibility requirements will have their application reviewed by the program team. If applicants are eligible, they will be contacted by staff to the registered email address and invited to have a follow-up call or visit to discuss their application.

3. Develop operational plan (OP) and complete CPA-52 review process

If accepted into this program, you will develop an operational plan (OP) using a provided template to design your Conservation Fieldscapes. Technical assistance will be provided as needed. You will need to submit your OP within 30 days of being accepted to the program.

Operational plans will be reviewed by our team and approved when they are deemed to follow requirements for each practices.

Once an operational plan is approved, we will compile all information needed to complete the CPA-52 reviews. This information is sent to third-party reviewers and Missouri NRCS who conduct these cultural and environmental reviews.

Please note USDA requires a CPA-52 review to be approved prior to issuing a contract and before a produce can start implementing the practice(s) on the field. Note that they may take a few months to complete these reviews.

4. Implementation & program participation

Each participant will work with their technical point person to decide what practices to include based on their farming goals and that meet the aims of building soil health and sequestering carbon. Each fieldscape must include at least three practices implemented over the course of the 3-year contract. The area must be adding at least two practices from the practice list that are new to that fieldscape.

Participants cohorts

Participants will be included in a Conservation Fieldscapes virtual cohort to provide on-going support from project partners, technical assistant point people, and farmer peers. Cohort members will attend an introduction meeting, quarterly check-in meetings, and a conclusion meeting. They will also receive information on relevant trainings and workshops to support implementation of fieldscapes. Cohort meetings will primarily be held virtually to allow inclusion of farmers across the state of Missouri.

Demonstration activities

Conservation fieldscape participants will be partners in education for this project. To this end, participants will be asked to contribute to at least one demonstration activity on their fieldscape during their 3-year contract. Participants will work with their point person or other project partners to decide what type of demonstration activity to do. Possible demonstration activities may include:

Host a tour of their fieldscape as part of a training event
Feature in a video (published and available online)
Feature in a written article (published and available online)

5. Monitoring, reporting, and verification

Producers will be required to track their progress in establishing their fieldscapes. Producers must provide the following prior to being issued a payment:

Producers will be required to track their progress in establishing their Conservation fieldscape.
Complete the reporting information required by USDA. Check out “What to Know” to learn more about what information we will need to collect.
A subset of all participants may also be asked to have soil samples taken on their field.
A subset of all participants will receive a site visit for verification.