What Do Federal Conservation Expenditures Support? Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) support of perennial land management, annual row crops, and confinement livestock in Wisconsin, Fiscal Years 2014 - 2024

Abstract

Federal conservation programs support landowners and farmers in addressing environmental resource concerns. In Wisconsin, an average of $29.7 million per year was spent on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) between FY 2014 - 2024. We found that 31.2% of expenditures went to annual row cropping agriculture, 29.2% confinement livestock, 19.7% perennial systems, and 12.1% were used across systems (multi-system). Cover crops, waste storage facilities, pond sealing or lining, heavy use area protections, and fence received the most investment. The majority of EQIP dollars supported annual and confinement livestock systems (~60% of funds combined), while ~20% supported perennial practices including prescribed grazing, forestry, agroforestry, restoration and habitat. Wisconsin counties varied in the amount of dollars spent on conservation and the types of conservation practices. Our work shows a majority of conservation dollars support annual row crop and confinement livestock highlighting the tension between applying conservation practices to slow environmental harm and transitioning to agroecosystems that protect and enhance soil, water, and habitat.