Explore Your Farm's CI Score
This interactive map, built on the USDA FD-CIC Feedstock Calculator, shows how location and practices can change CI scores across Illinois (darker green means a lower, better score). It's for informational purposes only, so work with your biofuel producer to determine your official CI score.
What is the CI score and why is it marked research?
The CI score in kg CO2e per mmBTU is what a fuel plant reports for 45Z. USDA FD-CIC stops at the farm gate, in grams of CO2e per bushel, and does not compute this score. The tool converts it using a plant conversion yield in gallons per bushel and a downstream CI for the plant. Neither figure is USDA's, so the score depends on what is entered under Plant estimate.
Who receives the 45Z credit, and what is the dollar figure?
The 45Z clean fuel production credit is claimed by the fuel producer, not the grower. It is worth zero unless the finished fuel is under the threshold CI. The dollar range shown is what the grower's practice change is worth per bushel at the base rate and at the prevailing-wage rate. Whether any of it reaches the grower is between the grower and the plant.
Why was my yield changed?
FD-CIC accepts an actual yield only within 0.8 to 1.2 times the expected yield. A figure outside that range is clamped to the nearest limit and the tool reports the value it used.
What is T-DISC and why does it set my tillage?
USDA's T-DISC tool decides whether a field qualifies as reduced till or no till, and FD-CIC requires that designation for any conservation-tillage claim. Choose "Work it out from my passes", name the most disturbing pass in each window, and the tillage row follows the designation. Until a designation resolves, tillage stays at conventional.
Which version of FD-CIC does this tool use?
USDA FD-CIC v1.0, June 2026. USDA released v1.2 in September 2026. It lowers corn totals by about 9 g CO2e per bushel and leaves the practice credits unchanged, so the difference a practice makes is the same in both.
Why do two counties in different parts of the state show the same score?
FD-CIC computes carbon intensity per USDA Major Land Resource Area, not per county. Counties in the same MLRA share soil and climate characteristics, so they share a score. Pin a county and every other county in its region is outlined on the map.
Where do the county yields and nitrogen rates come from?
Each county starts at its USDA RMA non-irrigated corn yield for the most recent crop year, and nitrogen at a fixed rate per bushel of that yield. These are benchmarks, not your farm. Enter your own yield and nitrogen rate and every county is rescored at your figures.
Why is a county's yield flagged?
RMA sometimes reports one yield for irrigated and non-irrigated acres together. Where the county has meaningful irrigation, the benchmark is probably higher than a dryland field would see and the tool says so. Where RMA does not record the acreage mix, the tool cannot tell either way. In both cases your own yield gives a better answer. Where RMA has no non-irrigated series at all, the tool uses a crop-wide default.