USDA Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator

Access the USDA FD-CIC tool (beta version): USDA FD-CIC (ZIP, 30.0 MB)

Access the USDA FD-CIC User Guide: USDA FD-CIC User Manual (PDF, 484 KB)

The USDA Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator (USDA FD-CIC) (beta version) quantifies carbon intensities (CI), in greenhouse gas emissions per bushel, for three domestic feedstock crops: field corn, soybeans, and sorghum. The USDA FD-CIC (beta version) feedstock CIs reflect the impact of specified climate-smart agriculture practices used during crop production. The USDA FD-CIC tool (beta version) allows producers to evaluate the following practices (as single or stacked practices):

No till
Reduced till
Cover crops
Nitrification inhibitors
Fertilizer timing: Split in-season application
Fertilizer timing: Spring only application

The interim rule Technical Guidelines for Climate-Smart Agriculture Crops Used as Biofuel Feedstocks includes USDA FD-CIC in Subpart C: Quantification of Farm-level Crop-specific Carbon Intensity. The rule also defines the practices listed above.

The county-level feedstock CIs in USDA FD-CIC were calculated in two steps. For the first step, USDA calculated the difference between the feedstock CI with CSA practices and the feedstock CI under business-as-usual farming practices. This calculation was performed at the county level, for each county in which the feedstock is produced. As a second step, USDA subtracted the difference calculated in step one from the national average baseline feedstock CI for each crop. The national average baseline feedstock CIs are used in Argonne National Laboratory’s Research and Development Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technology (R&D GREET). This step ensures a consistent baseline between USDA FD-CIC and the R&D GREET model. The full methodology underlying USDA FD-CIC is explained in the methodology documents linked below.

Request for Beta Testing, Peer Review, and Public Feedback

USDA is releasing USDA FD-CIC (beta version) for beta testing, peer review, and public feedback. USDA will evaluate and respond to the public feedback and peer review provided on USDA FD-CIC, after which USDA will take final action to establish an operative version. Before such final action is taken, users should consider values from USDA FD-CIC as preliminary and should not rely upon them.

The underlying models used to generate values in USDA FD-CIC have undergone extensive peer review. Further, under USDA’s authorities in section 2709 of the 2008 Farm Bill, in April 2024, USDA published Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity Scale Inventory. The publication of these methods adhered to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines "Final Information Quality bulletin for Peer Review" 70 FR 2664-2677, and this document has been designated by OMB as a highly influential scientific assessment. The method recommended for quantifying changes in soil carbon stocks and nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils refers to the DAYCENT ecosystem model, which is used as described in this rule to generate the CI estimates in USDA FD-CIC.

However, the values produced by USDA FD-CIC require additional beta testing, peer review, and public feedback.