Advancing Farmer-Led Groups in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin
One of the most promising trends in agriculture in recent years is the growing enthusiasm of farmers to simultaneously improve soil health, resilience to extreme weather, and farm profitability.
Increasingly, farmers are promoting these goals to their peers by organizing groups within their local watersheds and communities. Agricultural and conservation partners can accelerate this progress by supporting flexible, customized financial incentives led by farmer networks at the watershed scale.
In 2016, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) launched the Producer-Led Watershed Protection Grant (PLWPG) program. This program is unique as it requires a commitment by at least five farmers and a conservation partner (local, state, or non-governmental organization) within a specific watershed boundary. The farmers and partners design financial incentives and outreach/education activities based on local needs and motivations. Currently 50 producer-led groups utilize the program, with demand far exceeding the annual PLWPG program budget of $1 million. Partners in several states beyond Wisconsin are considering similar approaches for state-funded watershed-based programs.
Sand County Foundation secured a $13.8 million Regional Conservation Partnership Program award from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to build upon the success of the Wisconsin watershed groups, and to initiate similar farmer-led groups in watersheds across Illinois and in Dubuque County, Iowa.
This project enables farmer-led groups to apply conservation practices through locally designed financial incentives and individual technical assistance to farmer peers in their watersheds. The mix of practices and the structure of financial incentives varies according to the needs and preferences of each group. All groups prioritize improvement of local water resources through improved soil health, continuous living cover, and retention of nutrients on farmland. Applied practices also lower greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon in the soil.
This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, with programming support from Nestle Purina, Syngenta, and Field to Market.
PROGRESS TO DATE
In partnership with Dubuque County Watersheds, 75 farmers seeded 8,500 acres of cover crops via drone technology in late summer and fall of 2024. An additional 15,600 acres across 124 farms are enrolled to be seeded in fall 2025 in Dubuque County. The success of this "Batch and Grow" program has led to is replication in five Illinois counties, where our partner American Farmland Trust will work with 62 farmers in newly established farmer-led groups. Farmer-led groups in Illinois will seed 6,300 acres by drone and 1,000 acres by custom drill in the late summer and fall of 2025.
For more, view these news stories on the project:
Consider high-flying seeders: AgriView
Free aerial seeding initiative aims to boost soil conservation in Dubuque County: CBS Iowa
Farmers Leading the Way in Regenerative Agriculture: Field to Market Blog
DUBUQUE COUNTY DRONE COVER CROP PROGRAM
Sand County Foundation hopes to launch a research project to study the efficacy of drone seeding. To learn more about this research, please contact Haleigh Summers at hsummers@sandcountyfoundation.org.
READ more about our drone seeding project here...and WATCH the video below.
Dubuque County Drone Cover Crop Program
Sand County Foundation has launched a new FARMER-LED FUND FOR WATERSHED IMPROVEMENT. Nine producer-led groups in Wisconsin were awarded funds for conservation work in 2025. These groups will implement a diversity of practices in late 2025 and early 2026, including planting harvestable buffers, conservation pasture management, cover crop "batch and grow", planting green, and no-till adoption, among other practices.
Applications for the 2026 Farmer-Led Fund will open in February of 2026. If you have questions about the program please contact Craig Ficenec at 608.395.8402 or cficenec@sandcountyfoundation.org.
PARTNERS
FUNDED BY
WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Regional Conservation Partnership Program Supplemental Agreement number 2971