Grain handling industry sees savings in CRP
Farm and Ranch December 2, 2011 With budget considerations driving the 2012 Farm Bill reauthorization, the National Grain and Feed Association sees the Conservation Reserve Program as a logical place for the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to find significant savings. Randy Gordon is Association Vice President. Gordon: “We have done some calculations with the USDA that about seven million acres of this current CRP enrollment is in land Classes 1 & 2, which is some of our best farmland that can be farmed in a very sustainable way.” Gordon says the National Grain and Feed Association also wants Congress to insert language into the next farm bill requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to let farmers out of CRP contracts without imposing such stiff penalties. Gordon: “These horrific penalties right now of returning every dime they have ever earned in the CRP plus interest, plus penalties, which is an economic barrier to removing that land.” A farm bill outline proposed earlier this month by top leaders of the House and Senate Ag Committees recommended a gradual drawdown in CRP enrollment to 25 million acres from the current 32-million acre statutory cap. There are currently about 2.5 million acres of cropland in the Pacific Northwest enrolled in the CRP. The National Grain and Feed Association represents the interests of grain elevators, feed and related business in Washington D.C. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.
