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$25M climate-smart grant awarded to Mizzou

A multi-million grant from the USDA will help the University of Missouri work with farmers throughout the state to adopt climate-smart practices.

Dr. Rob Myers, director of Mizzou’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture, says the university has been awarded $25 million from the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program. “We’re hoping to impact about 500,000 acres of cropland and up to 100,000 beef cattle,” he said. “It’s going to be a big project.”

He tells Brownfield they’ll focus on conservation practices that help improve the resiliency of farm operations in the face of extreme weather, from droughts to excessive rainfall. “More use of cover crops, including grazing cover crops,” Myers said. “Another is helping them with grazing practices as a whole: management of intensive grazing, planting more diverse pasture mixes to try and help us get through challenging weather periods so we don’t need as much hay.”

MU Extension and several other partners will play a role in helping farmers effectively adopt these practices in rural Missouri.