The Bayer Carbon Program

ForGround is a new, farmer-first platform that supports growers in considering, adopting and expanding regenerative agriculture practices. Joining ForGround unlocks access to expert agronomic support and exclusive discounts – plus opportunities to earn income for implementing no-till, strip-till, or cover crops through the Bayer Carbon Program.

It's flexible and simple: you choose which practices you enroll in for each field, and then we help you implement those practices. We also take care of the practice verification, soil sampling and more.

And we want you to benefit from the expanding carbon markets. If prices increase, then your rewards may increase too. You get certainty, whatever you achieve: you're rewarded for the verified practices you adopt, period. There's no need to worry about how many tons of carbon you generate.

Reducing tillage and planting cover crops have on-farm and environmental effects. These practices can increase soil organic matter and improve the physical and biological properties of your soil, which may improve yield stability. Cover crops can help suppress weeds and cycle nutrients by fixing atmospheric nitrogen and scavenging excess soil nutrients. Cover crops and reduced tillage practices can also create lasting positive environmental effects by reducing soil erosion and decreasing sedimentation and nutrient pollution of waterways while promoting healthier soils for future generations.

We pay up to $6 for the adoption of no-till/strip-till practices and $6 for the adoption of cover crop practices, with available practices subject to state level eligibility requirements. We may also pay you a historical practice payment at the same rate if you performed the selected practices up to four years prior to the year of field enrollment. If you enroll fields in the 2024 Bayer Carbon Program, you may also be able to participate in the Nitrogen Management Program “add-on” and earn $4/acre, when the field is planted with corn, for applying select nitrification inhibitors and achieving a 5% reduction in the application of synthetic nitrogen¹. Payment is subject to verification by Bayer that the selected practices have been performed and, for historical payments, that carbon assets have been generated.

¹ Payments subject to: (a) verification by Bayer that the selected practices have been performed and, for historical payments, that carbon assets have been generated; and (b) all other applicable terms of the Bayer Carbon-Smart Master Services Agreement and attached program terms.

Bayer will pay participating farmers the payments due under the Bayer Carbon Program and Nitrogen Management Program no more than 30 days after the date of final verification that the selected practices have been performed. Payment for the performance of historical practices, if applicable, is also subject to confirmation that that carbon assets have been generated. See the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms for further details.¹

¹ Payments subject to: (a) verification by Bayer that the selected practices have been performed and, for historical payments, that carbon assets have been generated; and (b) all other applicable terms of the Bayer Carbon-Smart Master Services Agreement and attached program terms.

Accepted crops in the Bayer Carbon Program include: Corn, Soy, Wheat, Barley, Sorghum, Oats, Rye, Millet, Dry Beans, Lentils, Peas, and Chickpeas.

A farmer enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program must diligently perform, at their expense, all agronomic practices reasonably necessary to grow the cover crops (such as fertilizing, planting, and applying crop protection). If Bayer determines that the planting or growing of cover crops was prevented because of factors outside of the farmer's control (e.g., they planted a cover crop but it failed due to a weather event), the farmer may still receive the applicable practice payment, provided that additional documentation may need to be submitted to Bayer.

The Nitrogen Management Program “add-on” provides farmers with the opportunity to earn $4/acre, when the field is planted with corn, for applying select nitrification inhibitors and achieving a 5% reduction in the application of synthetic nitrogen.1 To enroll in the Nitrogen Management Program, farmers must select the “add on” option during field enrollment.

Key requirements for participation in the Nitrogen Management Program include the following:

• The field is newly enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program, as of 2024, for no-till/strip-till and/or cover crops;
• The use of nitrification inhibitors on the field must have been consistently adopted on or after August 1, 2019;
• A nitrification inhibitor is applied on the field and includes one of the following active ingredients: 2-chloro-6 (trichloromethyl)-pyridine (Nitrapyrin), dicycandiamide (DCD), or 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP); and
• The field achieves a 5% reduction in the use of synthetic nitrogen compared to the average synthetic nitrogen application for the field. The average application for the field will be calculated by reviewing the field’s synthetic nitrogen application data for the four years prior to the date in which consistent adoption of nitrification inhibitors on the field began.

Farmers will be required to submit the necessary records or data to help Bayer verify that they met the Nitrogen Management Program requirements (e.g., receipts, application documents, fertilizer application amounts, etc.). See the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms for further details.

Fields with an approved Nitrification inhibitor applied for the 2024 corn crop, and reduction of field-average total Nitrogen fertilizer by 5% from baseline fertilizer rate are eligible.

We do require you to have a Climate FieldView™ account in order enroll in ForGround and the Bayer Carbon Program. A ForGround participants that enroll between 1/1/24 and 12/31/24 and agree to associate their FieldView Plus or Premium account with the ForGround Program, will receive a $100 discount off the current list price of FieldView Plus (currently $299) or FieldView Premium (currently $799) valid for one-year. When you enroll a minimum of 250 acres in the Bayer Carbon Program, part of ForGround by Bayer, you’ll receive a 12-month subscription to FieldViewTM PLUS, a $299 value – free of charge. While Bayer has a broad selection of industry-leading crop protection, seed and seed treatment products, you are not required to purchase crop protection, seed or seed treatment products to participate in ForGround or the Bayer Carbon Program.

* ForGround by Bayer members who agree to associate their FieldView™ Plus or FieldView™ Premium account with ForGround will receive a $100 discount off of a FieldView™ Plus or FieldView™ Premium subscription for one year. ForGround members who enroll a minimum of 250 eligible acres in a carbon program offered through ForGround (requiring implementation of select regenerative ag practices) will receive a FieldView™ Plus subscription at no charge for one year, in the form of a $299 discount code (which may instead be applied to a FieldView™ Premium subscription, if desired).

Services and products offered by Climate LLC are subject to the customer agreeing to our Terms of Service. Our services provide estimates or recommendations based on models. These do not guarantee results. Consult with your agronomist, commodity broker, or other industry professional before making financial, farming, or risk management decisions. More information at https://climatefieldview.ca/legal/disclaimer. FieldView™ is a trademark of Climate LLC, Bayer CropScience Inc. licensee. Bayer and Bayer Cross are registered trademarks of Bayer Group. ©2024 Bayer Group. All rights reserved.

If you enroll a field in the Bayer Carbon Program in 2024, this will be the first year of the field’s 5-year program performance period. Bayer may, at its discretion, provide you with an option to renew the program performance period for each field for an additional five-year renewal period, up to three times per field. If Bayer offers, and you agree to all three renewal options for a field, the total program performance period for that field would be 20 years. As always, practices must continue to be performed during the 10-year retention period. Carbon credit buyers require that emission reductions be long-lasting. Continued performance during the retention period may further improve soil health and other benefits associated with practice implementation. See the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms for further details.

As much as possible. You choose which climate-smart practices you implement and which fields you enroll. Then, once you start seeing the benefits, you can add fields each year, subject to approval. You won’t be penalized for circumstances out of your control, such as if conditions don’t allow you to implement reduced tillage or cover crops, and there are no penalties for not participating in a given year.

Instead, you are paid for the years that we can verify you were able to implement your selected practices. If, despite your best efforts, your cover crop fails due to factors outside your control (such as a weather event), you’ll still qualify for payment, but may need to provide additional evidence.

It is your responsibility to notify Bayer if, in the 10 years before you adopted the selected practices on the field, the field was enrolled in other programs that generate carbon assets or the field participated in a stewardship or conservation program, such as the USDA Conservation Reserve Program or the USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program. After a field is enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program, it may not be enrolled in other carbon asset generation programs; however, participation in stewardship or conservation programs is generally allowed if carbon assets are not created and such participation is permitted by the other program(s). Please reach out to carbonprogram@bayer.com to verify program compatibility with the Bayer Carbon Program.

If the selected practices are not performed in a given calendar year, you must promptly notify Bayer. Bayer will not pay you the practices payment for calendar years in which the practices were not performed and Bayer may remove the field(s) from the Bayer Carbon Program, exercise its termination rights, or grant an exception. If you selected the cover crop practice for a field and Bayer determines that you were prevented from planting and growing the cover crop because of factors outside of your control (for example, you planted the cover crop, but it failed due to a weather event), you may still be eligible for payment, but submission of additional documentation may be required. See the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms for further details.

Every year a farmer enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program will need to:

• Fill out and submit to Bayer agronomic information for each field enrolled. Such information will include but is not limited to the timing of planting and harvest, total yield, cover crop planting dates, cover crop termination method, and cover crop termination dates (if applicable), tillage style and timing (if applicable), and any applications of fertilizer, manure, and irrigation (if applicable).
• Take a geo-tagged photo on each enrolled field showing the enrolled practice(s).
• Submit qualifying practice evidence seasonally for each enrolled practice (i.e. cover crop receipt, custom strip-till planting receipt etc.)
• In addition, for any fields newly enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program, a minimum of four years of historic agronomic data for such field to set the pre-practice change baseline for the carbon model. This is a one-time requirement for a given field and in subsequent years the only agronomic information needed will be for the current year (as detailed above).
• Fill out and submit to Bayer the annual attestation form. This includes attesting to the practices performed and the agronomic data submitted.
• One of the program’s Carbon Account Specialists will help growers submit this information to ensure program requirements are met for payment.

Our access to and use of the data you provide under the Bayer Carbon Program is governed by the terms of your Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement, Bayer’s Privacy Statement as well as the terms of use or privacy statement you accepted when you created an account with our affiliate, Climate LLC. Bayer will only access and use your data for the purposes stated in the agreement, such as to verify the performance of the practices, calculate the number of carbon assets generated, and similar purposes, and Bayer will not share your data with third parties except in confidence for the purposes listed in the agreement.

Bayer may employ the greenhouse gas emission reductions or removals to generate assets, such as carbon offset credits, that can be sold to companies or individuals to offset greenhouse gas emissions or, if a farmer enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program is located within a specific company’s supply chain, these emissions reductions or removals may be accounted for within a company’s supply chain greenhouse gas emissions accounting or used to support a carbon neutral certification.

During the Program term, we will periodically evaluate the current market price for a carbon assets. If we determine, in our sole discretion, that there has been a substantial increase in the current market price for a carbon asset, we will share part of the increased value with you by increasing the payment rate for applicable practices if the field meets the relevant eligibility criteria.

The Bayer Carbon Program is both protocol and model agnostic. We may potentially work with any of the existing protocols governing carbon offset credit generation and value chain interventions as well as any existing commercial carbon accounting models.

Yes, you can drop out of the program with no claw backs or penalties. Farmer must inform Bayer that they wish to terminate.