Bayer Carbon Program
Working towards healthier soil.
Today's Practices. Tomorrow's Opportunity.
The Bayer Carbon Program is part of ForGround by Bayer and provides U.S. growers the opportunity to earn per-acre payments for adopting cover crops and select conservation tillage practices. The program connects today’s practices with tomorrow’s opportunity through long-term program support designed for growers already investing in their operations.
Program Highlights:
Eligible Practices
Eligible practices include no-till, strip-till, and cover crops. Reduced-till may be eligible on acres where cover crops are used.
Eligible Geography
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Eligible Cash Crops
Corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, sorghum, chickpeas, dry beans, oats, lentils, millet, peas, and rye.
New for 2026:
Managed Livestock Grazing
Acres with managed livestock grazing on cover crops or crop residue may be eligible to participate in the Bayer Carbon Program. Grazing is not an incentivized practice but is allowed under the program terms and verification.
Ready to enroll?
How Much Can I Earn?
Early Adoption & Historical Practices Payment
Earn a one-time payment of up to $48 per acre.
Fields with practice change on or after August 30, 2019, may be eligible to participate with the potential to receive up to four years of historical practices payment.1
$48
per acre
$6 per acre/practice for years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025
$12
per acre
Cover crops and a
qualifying tillage practice
Regenerative Agriculture Practices
Earn up to $12 per acre for adopting regenerative agriculture practices.
The Bayer Carbon Program offers growers the opportunity to earn $6 per acre for each eligible practice, including no-till, strip-till, or cover crops. Growers who use both cover crops and a qualifying tillage practice may be eligible to earn up to $12 per acre.1
$4
per acre
Nitrogen Management Program
Earn an additional $4 per acre for your fields planted with corn.
Fields enrolled in the Bayer Carbon may also be eligible for an additional $4 per acre on corn acres through the Nitrogen Management Program by using select nitrification inhibitors and reducing synthetic nitrogen application by 5%.2
Why Choose the Bayer Carbon Program?
Farming has always been about planning for the future—your soil, your yields, your legacy. Now, it can also create potential new revenue streams. Through ForGround by Bayer and the Bayer Carbon Program, growers can earn per-acre payments for regenerative practices they’re already using or planning to adopt, along with year-round agronomic support and access to exclusive discounts and offers.
Certain |
There’s no need to worry about how many tons of carbon you sequester because you are rewarded for the verified and validated practices you adopt on eligible fields.1 |
Simple |
You choose which eligible practices to adopt and the fields to enroll. We provide the support to help execute your plan. |
Flexible |
We understand your situation can change, so you may request approval from Bayer, within 30 days of the start of the upcoming calendar year, to add or remove an enrolled field from the program. |
Frequently Asked Questions
If you enroll a field in the Bayer Carbon Program in 2026, 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 asset buyers require that emission reductions be long-lasting. Continued performance during the retention period may further improve soil health and offer other benefits associated with practice implementation.
See the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms for further details.
You have the potential to earn up to $6/acre for the adoption of reduced-till/no-till/strip-till practices and $6 for the adoption of cover crop practices, with available practices subject to state acre enrollment limits. Fields with practice change on or after August 15, 2019 may be eligible to participate, with the potential to receive up to 4 years of historical practices payments. This means that if you have been continuously performing your selected practices since 2021, you could receive a one-time historical practices payment of up to $48 per acre.
If you enroll fields in the 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 nitrogen.2
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.
The Nitrogen Management Program “add-on” provides growers 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. To enroll in the Nitrogen Management Program, growers must select the “add on” option during field enrollment.2
Key requirements for participation in the Nitrogen Management Program include the following:
- The field is enrolled in the 2024, 2025, or 2026 Bayer Carbon Program for no-till, strip-till, reduced-till, and/or cover crops;
- The use of nitrification inhibitors on the field must have been consistently adopted on or after August 15, 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 4 years prior to the date in which consistent adoption of nitrification inhibitors on the field began.
Growers will be required to submit the necessary records and data to help Bayer verify that they met the Nitrogen Management Program requirements (e.g., receipts, application documents, fertilizer application amounts, etc.).
If the Nitrogen Management Practice is not performed in a given calendar year in which you planted corn on the enrolled field, you must promptly notify Bayer. Bayer will not pay you the practices payment for that calendar year and Bayer may remove the field(s) from the Nitrogen Management Program, exercise its termination rights, or grant an exception. See the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms for further details.
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. Starting in 2026, fields that have been previously enrolled in a carbon asset generating program are eligible to enroll in the Bayer Carbon program. Growers will need to show proof of termination from the previous program and will not be eligible for historical payments. Participation in stewardship or conservation programs may be permitted 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.
The data you provide or make available as part of the Bayer Carbon Program and Nitrogen Management Program will only be accessed and used for the purposes you permit, such as the purposes you consented to during enrollment and in the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement, as well as the terms of use or privacy statement you accepted when you created an account with our affiliate, Climate LLC.
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Browse our extensive help section to find answers to Frequently Asked Questions or reach out to our Carbon Engagement Specialists who can answer program and enrollment questions.
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 Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms.
2 Applicable field must also be newly enrolled in a qualifying carbon program, offered through ForGround by Bayer, as of 2024 to participate in the Nitrogen Management Program. Must use qualifying nitrification inhibitor and realize a 5% reduction in synthetic nitrogen compared to 4-year baseline average prior to nitrification inhibitor use. Field must be planted with corn to be eligible for per acre payment. See Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement for further detail.
Certain practices may be subject to state acre enrollment limits. The regenerative agriculture program described in this material is subject to the current version of the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms. The information is to aid in the understanding of the program and does not change or modify the Bayer Carbon-Smart Practices Master Agreement and attached program terms in any way.