FAQ

The Platform measures the impact of farm management practices on 8 sustainability metrics: Biodiversity, Energy Use, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Irrigation Water Use, Land Use, Soil Carbon, Soil Conservation and Water Quality. To learn more about how these metrics are calculated, please visit our Metrics Documentation.

The following models are used as the backbone for the Fieldprint Platform’s eight sustainability indicators:

• USDA’s Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) and Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS)
• USDA’s STEP
• SWAT+
• Habitat Potential Index (HPI)

For mor information on how these models work and impact our eight sustainability indicators, please see our metrics documentation website.

All eight indicators are calculated simultaneously. The Platform cannot calculate one indicator separately because much of the data a user enters is used for multiple calculations. For example, to determine Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Use must first be calculated. In irrigated fields, irrigation water use affects the amount of energy consumed, which then affects the amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emitted as a result.

Ultimately, yes; however, to credibly communicate the environmental impacts of agronomic changes, Field to Market has established protocols regarding the use of results from the Fieldprint Platform. These protocols include requiring organizations to join Field to Market and registering a Fieldprint Project.

• Alfalfa
• Barley
• Corn for Grain
• Corn for Silage
• Cotton
• Peanuts
• Potatoes
• Pulse Crops
  • Chickpeas (garbanzos)
  • Dry beans
  • Dry peas
  • Fava beans
  • Lentils
  • Lupin
• Rice
• Sorghum
• Soybeans
• Sugar Beets
• Wheat (durum, spring, winter)

Currently, the Fieldprint Platform can produce analysis for certain crops grown in the contiguous United States.

We are constantly expanding our portfolio to meet member needs. Adding a new commodity crop involves a rigorous process to ensure your sustainability metrics are robust.

The process includes developing crop-specific data references, updating our modeling architecture, and ensuring alignment with soil carbon and soil erosion models.

• Standard Integration: For crops compatible with existing modeling frameworks, the investment typically ranges from $20,000 to $40,000.
• Complex Integration: If a crop requires custom modeling or primary research with our academic partners (such as Colorado State University), costs can range from $75,000 to $150,000.

Members can fund these additions through a combination of annual dues and supplemental project funding. We also encourage multiple organizations to partner and invest jointly so as to make these Fieldprint Platform improvements more cost-effective for all interested parties. 

Please contact our team to discuss the timeline and technical requirements for your specific commodity.

The Fieldprint Platform is available for anyone to use, free of charge at calculator.fieldtomarket.org. The tool is also available through qualified data management partners, embedded as a value-added service to their farm management software. Some of these data partners may charge a fee to access their software.

Entering data for the first time could take from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours per field, depending on the complexity of the farm management practices; users report that completing a crop interval for a field gets much easier with practice.​ The calculations themselves are typically completed within a minute or two.

While Field to Market does not provide data entry assistance, we do support Fieldprint Project Administrators and Implementation Partners as they work with individual growers. We offer Platform training sessions for Field to Market members, provide demos of the Platform for organizations looking to join Field to Market and maintain a support website that helps walk growers through the data entry process. Please see data entry support in User Support section of this website.