Expanding your livestock operation
Planning additional animals, facilities, manure handling, or grazing infrastructure.
Agricultural Conservation Planning
Conservation Planning That Starts With Your Farm
KES helps farmers plan conservation projects and work through the technical requirements that come with them.
We start with your farm, what you’re trying to accomplish, and the resource concerns that need to be addressed. Then we help you evaluate the options and develop a conservation plan that works for the operation.
CNMPs • Conservation Planning • Organic Transition • Soil Health • Pest Management • CPA, DIA & CEMA Technical Services
KES Planning Principle
The plan should serve the farm — not the other way around.
Start With the Farm
What are you trying to accomplish on your farm?
Every conservation project starts with a need on the farm. KES can help determine what planning and technical services are needed to address it.
Managing manure, runoff, or water-quality concerns
Improving storage, application, heavy-use areas, or production-area management.
Improving soil or crop performance
Addressing soil health, erosion, nutrient efficiency, compaction, or declining productivity.
Planning grazing improvements
Improving pasture use, fencing, watering, forage management, or livestock movement.
Considering organic production
Evaluating the transition process, production changes, conservation needs, and USDA requirements.
Managing weeds, insects, or crop-health concerns
Planning pest management approaches that address crop needs while considering potential impacts to natural resources.
Already have an NRCS contract?
Not sure what comes next? KES can help you understand the technical services in your contract, what is required, important deadlines, and what needs to happen next.
KES is an independent Technical Service Provider and is not part of USDA-NRCS.
Making Sense of the Process
What is conservation planning?
Conservation planning starts with figuring out what needs attention on the farm, looking at practical ways to address it, and developing a plan that works with the operation.
Conservation projects can get complicated quickly.
Funding, technical requirements, engineering, conservation practices, and implementation all have to fit together. Decisions made during planning can affect which options remain practical later.
KES helps you understand those pieces early, evaluate the trade-offs, and make informed decisions before the project moves toward implementation.
Services
Conservation planning and technical services
KES works across the farm to consider agricultural goals, resource concerns, technical requirements, and how conservation and production systems work together.
Livestock & Nutrient Management
Planning for manure, livestock facilities, nutrient use, runoff, and production-area concerns.
Soil & Crop Management
Soil health, pest management, organic transition, nutrient efficiency, and practical agronomic planning.
Conservation Planning
Whole-farm planning, grazing management, erosion and resource concerns, and land-treatment strategies.
Technical Services & Project Support
NRCS/TSP technical deliverables, contract interpretation, project coordination, field evaluation, mapping, and coordination with engineers and specialists.
How We Work
Planning starts with understanding the operation.
1. Understand the Operation
We start with your farm, your goals, and the problem you are trying to solve.
2. Evaluate the Options
We look at technical requirements, realistic conservation alternatives, and how each would work on the farm.
3. Develop a Workable Plan
We bring the technical requirements and conservation decisions together into a plan that works for the operation.
Good planning should lead to better decisions.
Planning Requirements & Stakeholders Laws, property restrictions, and funding requirements can all affect which conservation alternatives are practical and implementable.
The landowner remains at the center of the plan.
KES considers applicable requirements early so the plan reflects the landowner’s goals while accounting for the legal, property, and funding requirements that may affect implementation.
Funding requirements
Federal and state financial assistance or cost-share programs, grants, and other funding sources may include policy, technical requirements, or other conditions that need to be considered during planning.
Legal and property requirements
Applicable laws, regulations, permits, conservation easements, preserved-farm deed restrictions, and other property requirements may affect what can be done and where.
Why KES
Experience with farms, conservation planning, and NRCS
KES was built around a simple idea: conservation planning should help farmers make better decisions, not add another layer of confusion.
KES is led by John Kluthe, principal consultant, who serves as the primary client contact and conservation planner. Often, projects require engineering or other specialized expertise — KES has longstanding working relationships with engineers and other technical specialists.
Before founding KES, John spent much of his career helping farmers solve conservation problems from inside NRCS. Today, KES brings that experience directly to farmers and landowners — combining an understanding of agriculture, NRCS requirements, and conservation practices with practical planning at the farm level.
The goal is not simply to complete the required paperwork. It is to help you understand your options, make informed decisions, and develop a plan that works for your operation.
Experience from inside the conservation system — now working directly for the client.
NRCS Certified TSP Technical Service Provider CPA • DIA • CEMA • 900-Series Technical Services Explore NRCS Technical Services →Former NRCS Conservationist
Field-level experience working directly with farmers and conservation programs.
Certified Conservation Planner
Qualified to develop NRCS conservation plans and support conservation decisions.
Certified Crop Adviser
Agronomic background in soil, crop, and nutrient management.
Agronomy & Forestry Education
• B.S. in Agronomy, Missouri State University • M.S. in Forestry, University of Missouri, with graduate research in agroforestry
Client Experience
What clients say about working with KES
Our clients can tell you what it is like to work with KES.
Working with Kluthe Environmental Solutions was a great experience from start to finish. The communication was outstanding; John was always responsive and kept us informed throughout the process. He made everything easy to understand. We truly appreciate the work and expertise and highly recommend KES.
Working with Kluthe Environmental Solutions is pleasant, productive, and helped move my farm management goals forward. John took the time to understand my operation’s context, my growing philosophy, and my production goals to develop a clear and simple-to-implement plan in line with NRCS practice standards and USDA Organic regulations. Working with KES gives me an extra tool in my “tool belt” and a trusted advisor for my nutrient management and farm conservation planning needs!
I purchased a preserved farm in 2019 and began working with NRCS shortly thereafter. It was quite a learning curve for me, and working with KES on a CNMP was probably the easiest project to date. John understood the NRCS requirements and navigated within their restrictions. However, he was able to communicate with me at a level I could understand, which allowed me to make good long-term decisions for the farm.
The People Behind KES
Personal service backed by trusted technical collaborators
John Kluthe
Principal Consultant
John is the primary client contact and leads conservation planning, field assessment, and project coordination for KES. He works directly with farmers to understand the operation, evaluate conservation alternatives, and carry planning decisions through NRCS and other technical requirements into implementation.
Brandy Garrett Kluthe, Ph.D.
Ecology & Sustainability Advisor
Brandy contributes an ecological and sustainability perspective to selected KES projects and provides technical and organizational support to the business.
Engineering & Technical Collaborators
Matt Brubaker, P.E.
Terrain Engineering, LLC
Matt is a licensed professional engineer and NRCS Technical Service Provider for engineering practices. Through Terrain Engineering, LLC, he works with KES on projects involving agricultural structures, site development, engineering design, and technical implementation support.
Eric Rupnarain, P.E.
Goldenbaum Baill Engineering, Inc.
Eric is a licensed professional engineer with Goldenbaum Baill Engineering, Inc. His work includes site planning, grading and drainage, stormwater design, hydrologic analysis, and related civil engineering. He works with KES on structure drawings, site plans, and engineering coordination for agricultural projects.
KES also works with additional independent specialists when a project requires other technical expertise.
Service Area
Where KES works most often
New Jersey Connecticut
Additional certifications
Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland West Virginia Rhode Island Missouri Kentucky New York*
*New York certification is limited to Transition to Organic services.
Start a Conversation
Let’s Talk About Your Farm
Have a conservation project in mind or an NRCS contract already in place? Start with a little information about your farm and what you’re working on.
Email John
Tell me where the farm is, what you’re working toward, and whether an NRCS contract is already part of the project.
John@KlutheEnvironmental.com
John@KlutheEnvironmental.com