10/03/08 Washington landowners getting annual CRP payments

Washington Ag October 3, 2008 Conservation Reserve Program rental payments for fiscal year 2009 have been issued by the USDA. Farm Service Agency Assistant Deputy Lynn Tjeerdsma provides details. Tjeerdsma: "Payments that were released are actually for rental rates that were for the 2008 year and those payments are made on October 1 of each year. And that covers all the CRP practices, continuous, general CRP and it covers an average of $50.93 acre and it will total about 1.8 billion dollars going out to farmers and landowners across the United States." In Washington those payments total over 83-million dollars to over five-thousand farms for the 1.5 million acres enrolled in the CRP. The CRP is a voluntary program in which enrolled producers plant long-term, resource conserving covers to improve water quality, control erosion and enhance habitat for wildlife. As directed by Congress in the new farm bill the National Agricultural Statistics Service will for the first time be collecting and publishing county-level cash rental rate data. That information will help USDA administer such programs as Conservation Reserve Program. I'm Bob Hoff.