Incentive Payments for Planting Upland Bird Habitat Field Borders in Tennessee

Crop yields along field perimeters that are adjacent to trees and other tall-herbaceous are known to have the lowest yields in a field. An alternative use of these areas that might be more profitable and sustainable is to remove the land from crop production and enroll these areas into the upland bird habitat (UBH) buffer program. However, the adoption of UBH buffers have been limited by producers, despite being eligible for receiving an incentive payment for adopting UBH buffers. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to determine the breakeven incentive payment for corn [Zea mays L.] and soybean [Glycine max L.] producers to convert field perimeters adjacent to tree lines into UBH buffers. Simulation models were established to find distributions of annualized incentive payments that would be required for Tennessee corn and soybean producers to adopt UBH buffers. The models were built using five years (2008-2012) of corn and soybean yield data from 69 West Tennessee fields. Enterprise budgets for establishing switchgrass [Panicum virgatum L.], big bluestem grass [Andropogon gerardi L.], and indiangrass [Sorghastrum nutans L.] UBH borders were developed and historical corn prices, soybean prices, and production costs were collected. The average incentive payment a corn producer would require to plant field borders next to trees with UBH buffers ranged from between $97-$109/acre, while soybean producers would require a payment between $169-$189/acre depending on the UBH species. Results are also presented when the current incentive payment levels are increased and decreased to determine how producers might respond to policy changes. The results may help inform state policy makers in determining if the current incentive payment is sufficient to influence Tennessee producers to replace tree lines into a UBH buffer.