The Growing GRASS Project: Producer Enrollment Bonus
Growing GRASS Producer Payment Options Currently Available. The Growing GRASS project has USDA funding to provide directly to eligible US beef and bison producers. Producers who successfully enroll with the project can get payments for:
- Enrolling & Sharing What You Know: Eligible producers receive $3000 for completing an enrollment survey. Your answers help us understand your operation and what you see as the real obstacles and opportunities in regenerative grazing, markets, and byproduct valuation, so the project reflects what's actually happening on the ground.
- On-Farm Audits & Value-Added Market Certifications: We are building supply chains and growing demand for beef and bison byproducts including hides, organs, and other materials that too often go to waste. The Growing GRASS project can provide funding for on-farm audits and certifications that demonstrate you are implementing prescribed / regenerative grazing on your operation.
- Soil Sampling & On-Farm Research for Market Access: We are building supply chains and growing demand for beef and bison byproducts including hides, organs, and other materials that too often go to waste. The Growing GRASS project can provide funding for on-farm audits and certifications that demonstrate you are implementing prescribed / regenerative grazing on your operation.
- Regenerative Grazing Training & Peer Connection: Whether you're early in the transition or have been grazing regeneratively for years, staying connected to good information and other producers matters. Growing GRASS has funding available for training, educational events, and meetings where you can learn and share alongside others doing this work.
- Storytelling: Ensuring Producers Define Their Own Value: The Growing GRASS Project is designed to ensure producers define their own value and not just receive recognition from outside systems. We aim to make space for ranchers and farmers to share their field knowledge on their own terms, with partners and markets that are ready to listen. Storytelling — the process of capturing, elevating, and circulating that knowledge in ways that inform markets, partners, and peers — is supported by Growing GRASS.
Eligibility requirements include:
Raise beef cattle and/or buffalo using prescribed grazing practices as defined by USDA NRCS Conservation Practice 528
Be enrolled with the USDA Farm Service Administration (FSA), including:
Having an active USDA Farm number.
Having the farm “fields” enrolled where you agree that you are implementing Practice 528 (prescribed grazing) of beef and/or bison.
Having a current Subsidiary Print from USDAConfirmation you are not enrolled in another USDA AMP project for beef or bison.
Confirmation you are not enrolled in another USDA AMP project for beef or bison.
Confirmation you do not operate a concentrated animal feeding operation (“CAFO”) on the farm/ranch (as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency) on your registered USDA farm.
Agreement to share information with Growing GRASS for research purposes. Growing GRASS will only release producer data in aggregate and without identifiable producer information unless you have given explicit permission otherwise.
