Dick Rush, Idaho State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency, is encouraging Idaho Producers to take advantage of the Transition Incentives Program (TIP) - a new program under the Conservation Title of the 2008 Farm Bill. TIP will provide annual rental payments to eligible retiring farmers for up to two additional years after the date of the expiration of a CRP contract, provided the transition is not to a family member.

 Here’s Dick: “There’s 2 great advantages. (1) It’ll give 2 extra years of CRP income to a farmer who’s land is retiring out of CRP and secondly it gives a real incentive to that farmer to lease or sell the land to a beginning farmer. How I look at it our farmers are aging in Idaho, a lot of people are retiring, theres a bunch of new people who’d like to get into farming, it’s expensive it’s hard to do so this gives an incentive for beginning farmers