An option for expiring CRP contracts
Washington Ag Today February 16, 2010 Assuming there is no new general Conservation Reserve Program sign up this year what can holders of CRP contracts that expire this fall do? Rod Hamilton of the Washington State Farm Service Agency office told a recent seminar on CRP that State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement or the SAFE program is one option.
Hamilton: “In our state we only offer that program in Whitman County, Lincoln County and Grant County and only portions of those counties. Because this kind of a special practice it targets specific wildlife considerations. The cover requirements are fairly high. We have started to enroll some here in Washington. The better old CRP stands probably don‘t have to do much. The poorer stands, those folks if they want to get into that program are probably going to enhance the cover that is out there. Maybe do some reseeding. However there is quite a bit of cost-share that is provided. I think those practices get 90% cost-share. So even though it is an expensive cover in most cases we would cover 90% of the cost of the enhancement that you’d have to do.”
Hamilton says officials are also working on a SAFE program for Douglas County.
Hamilton: “That is not approved yet. Kind of wrapped up in this whole thing because Douglas County is over 25% of the cropland. But we understand that probably will be approved in the next few months anyway and we will offer that.”
More CRP options tomorrow.
I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
?
?
?
