A Commodity Buffer is a strip of perennial vegetation established at the edge of any waterway; stream, river, creek, ditch, spring, wet area, drainage, or shoreline. They are used to:
- Capture sediment from agricultural runoff
- Filter nutrients, pesticides, and animal waste from agricultural runoff
- Provide wildlife habitat and establish wildlife corridors

Unlike any other buffer program in the nation, the commodity buffer is an opportunity to showcase a practice that works on all fronts! It compensates a producer for the true value of the ground, can help provide regulatory certainty for the agricultural community, and protects water quality.
Benefits include:
- Can assist producer toward Farmed Smart Certification eligibility.
- Can help provide regulatory certainty.
- Reduces suspended and associated contaminants (ie. nutrients, pesticides and bio-solids) in runoff.
- Can be grazed or hayed (with appropriate planning requirements).
- Can be single species or multi-species mix such as: timothy, timothy/alfalfa, orchard grass/alfalfa, bluegrass, and timothy/white clover/orchard grass/tall fescue/ annual rye

Requirements:
- Commodity buffers cannot be burned
- Haying and mowing must occur after July 1st