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 reduced till practices and $6 for the adoption of cover crop practices, with available practices subject to state and county level eligibility requirements. We may also pay you a historical practice payment if you performed the selected practices during the year before field enrollment. Payment is subject to verification by Bayer that the selected practices have been performed and, for historical payments, that carbon assets have been generated.

If you enroll by December 31, 2022, your initial payment timing will be in the fall of 2023. If you enroll on or after January 1, 2023, and by December 31, 2023, your initial payment will be in the fall of 2024. Payment is subject to verification by Bayer that the selected practices have been performed and, for historical payments, that carbon assets have been generated.

Each field enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program, unless Bayer grants exception, must be planted with corn or soybeans, but may be intermittently rotated to wheat.

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.

We do require you to have a Climate FieldView™ account in order enroll in ForGround and the Bayer Carbon Program. As a member of ForGround, you can receive a Climate FieldView™ Plus subscription for free.* 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 members who agree to associate their FieldView™ Plus account with ForGround will receive a FieldView Plus subscription at no charge for one year. Current participants in the Bayer Carbon Program can participate in this offer by becoming ForGround members and complying with offer requirements. The FieldView Plus opportunity set forth in this paragraph is subject to Bayer continuing to offer promotion. Promotion may be discontinued by Bayer at any time in Bayer’s sole discretion. Promotion participants must not be in breach of any agreements between Bayer and its affiliates, including Climate LLC, in order to qualify. FieldView Drive or FieldView Drive Starter Kits are not included in this offer. No commissions will be paid to dealers for subscribers participating in this offer. This offer may not be combined with any other offer for FieldView Plus.

This Bayer Carbon Program described in this material is subject to the current version of the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement. The information is to aid in the understanding of the Bayer Carbon Program and does not change or modify the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement in any way.

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. ©2022 Bayer Group. All rights reserved.

Each field must remain enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program for 10 years (minus any years for which the farmer receives payment for historical practices), plus an additional 10-year retention period after the program term where the practices must be maintained. Carbon credit buyers require that emission reductions be long-lasting. Continued performance during the 10-year retention period may further improve soil health and other benefits associated with practice implementation

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. And, if we can verify that you performed the practices on an enrolled field during each year of the program, you’ll also earn the end of contract bonus payment for that field.

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.

The same fields cannot be enrolled in multiple programs that generate greenhouse gas reduction assets (such as carbon credits).

The farmer should notify Bayer that the practices were not performed. Bayer will not pay for practices not performed and we may remove the field(s) from the program; however, an exception may be granted in Bayer's sole discretion-see next question on cover crops.

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

• Fill out and submit to Bayer the annual attestation form.
• Fill out and submit to Bayer agronomic information for each field enrolled. Such information may be entered into the farmer’s FieldView™ account and will include, without limitation, the timing of planting and harvest, total yield, cover crop planting dates (if applicable), tillage style and timing (if applicable), and any applications of fertilizer, manure, and irrigation (if applicable).
• Use the FieldView™ Scouting application to take a geo-tagged photo in the field showing the enrolled practice(s).

In addition, for any fields newly enrolled in the Bayer Carbon Program, a farmer will need to enter into their FieldView™ account a minimum of 3 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).

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.

We share in the upside by evaluating the current market price of carbon assets on an annual basis, if the field level eligibility requirements are met, we will increase your payment rate for applicable practices and issue you an addendum listing the new payment rates.

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.

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.

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