WASHIINGTON — NRCS Chief Colton L. Buckley said Friday he is doubling down on prioritizing the needs of farmers and protecting farmland across the U.S.

The massive agency released a new mission statement, slogan and list of priorities stating it will deliver, “practical, voluntary and locally led conservation solutions” to help farmers and ranchers conserve natural resources, strengthen production and keep working farm ground productive.

Buckley told No-Till Farmer he is prioritizing field staff to improve field engagement and technical expertise.

Farmers should expect to see more responsive staff with up-to-date mobile tools and digital platforms that will allow NRCS staff to co-create conservation programs on site rather than agents driving back and forth to a farm multiple times or requiring farmers to come into a federal office. Buckley also doesn’t want to see field staff awash in paperwork.

“The shift that this agency is going to have to make is digging deep in the soil, so to speak, to make sure that everything we do is focused on what's best for them,” Buckley said. “And I think in the previous administration at this agency, that was certainly not the case.

“You can see that with the type of partnerships that were developed with little to no deliverables directly serving the land or helping the people this agency was created to serve. I think you can see that in the outdated technologies that we inherited as well.”

He noted the NRCS has 168 conservation practice standards — “which is the core tenet of what we do” — and 91 of them are statutorily outdated, and about a dozen haven’t been updated in a decade.

“We've got to follow the law and support the American farmer, rancher and private landowner to the best of our ability. And it takes a while to get an agency the size of the NRCS re-guided in the right direction.”

Boosting technical support on the ground looks to be a challenge for the agency. This week, some 160 ag organizations — including the National Corn Growers Assn., National Farmers Union and American Soybean Assn. — sent a lengthy letter to a U.S. Senate subcommittee imploring lawmakers to preserve staffing levels at the NRCS and FSA, which have suffered substantial staff losses in recent years. 

The USDA’s December 2025 report said more than 20,000 USDA employees departed between January 12 and June 14 last year, including approximately 2,673 NRCS employees (22% of staff), 806 FSA employees (24% of staff), and 1,082 employees from FSA county offices (7% of staff).

They asserted that reduced staffing levels to date have created “significant barriers” for producers attempting to access USDA services, particularly in rural and underserved agricultural communities where local field offices may be the only primary connection between producers and the federal government.

There have also been grumblings from the field about encountering NRCS agents lacking agricultural experience and being focused on environmental activism. 

Buckley said Friday the NRCS loses 10-12% of its staff naturally through attrition, but he plans to emphasize professional development and mentoring from more experienced staff to improve morale in the agency and improve retention.

Other priorities the NRCS is setting is accepting third-party certified conservation plans, “that meet or exceed” agency standards and working with private partners to speed up conservation outcomes.