Cost share is available for producers interested in converting cropland to grass to create riparian buffers adjacent to lakes and streams, grass waterways on crop fields, nesting habitat for waterfowl and upland game birds, or to convert highly erodible cropland to hayfields or pastures for rotational grazing systems.
Grant funds will help pay for seedbed preparation, seeding operation, and the cost of seed depending on the type of grass or mixture desired which includes tame grasses, native grass mixes, or native grass and forbs mixes. Cost share rates are based on the conservation practice implemented. Plantings for wildlife habitat, riparian buffers, and critical area plantings will receive fifty-percent (50%) cost share; grassed waterways forty-percent (40%). All practices require a minimum landowner cash contribution of twenty-five percent (25%).
