USDA’s Regenerative Feedstock Guidance Could Create New Value for Corn Growers

11 July 2026, US: The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently published a final rule entitled, “Technical Guidelines for the Production of Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstocks.” The rule establishes a voluntary framework for quantifying, reporting and verifying how certain agricultural practices impact the carbon intensity of corn and other commodity crops used in the production of biofuels. This rule could help unlock additional value for farmers under the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Tax Credit.

The National Corn Growers Association has played an active role in providing feedback to USDA throughout the rulemaking process. To inform farmers about the actions that are being taken on this issue, we posed several questions to Matt Ziegler, who handles biofuels policy for NCGA.

1. What is the Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstock rule?

The new rule enables farmers to document and verify how several regenerative agriculture practices can reduce emissions when growing four commodity crops – corn, soy, sorghum and spring canola. The voluntary program could help farmers capture additional value for crops used as biofuel feedstocks based on lower carbon intensity scores.

2. What is the Feedstock Calculator?

USDA’s Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator (USDA FD-CIC) was published alongside the Regenerative Feedstock rule. The tool quantifies greenhouse gas emissions per bushel of production. Field-level data is collected for several agronomic practices including tillage, nutrient management and cover crops. The resulting carbon intensity score can be marketed to biofuel producers that are seeking low-carbon feedstocks.

3. How will farmers participate in this kind of program?

Farmers wishing to participate in voluntary low-carbon markets will need to keep detailed agronomic records, submit their data to the Feedstock Calculator and be willing to have their records reviewed by a third-party verifier. Furthermore, USDA’s Feedstock Rule adopts a “mass balance” chain of custody standard, which means that the grain must be physically traced to an ethanol plant to qualify for the program.

Note: NCGA continues to advocate for a “book and claim” chain of custody model, which would allow farmers to market their carbon reductions separate from the grain; however, this has not yet been enabled under current USDA rules.

4. How is this related to the 45Z tax credit, and what else needs to happen for farmers to benefit from this policy?

The Treasury Department published a proposed rule for implementing the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit in February 2026, which indicated that future action could be taken to incorporate low-carbon farming practices into the value of the biofuel tax credit. Now that USDA’s Regenerative Feedstock rule has been finalized, we are urging Treasury and the Department of Energy to update its guidance to enable farmer participation in the 45Z program.  

5. What can growers do to help advance this process?

Stay involved with your state organization and NCGA. That means joining and becoming a member, if you aren’t already. We would also encourage you to sign up for advocacy alerts at www.ncga.com to get updates on this and other issues and invitations to participate in letter-writing campaigns and other methods of outreach.

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