Vilsack won't be pinned down on CRP general sign up

Farm and Ranch April 22, 2010 One of the questions put to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in an appearance before the House Agriculture Committee Wednesday was when will the USDA hold a general sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program? The Secretary had previously said a sign up is planned for this year. But Jerry Moran of Kansas told Vilsack that for those producers with CRP contracts that expire this fall time is running out and decisions need to be made about what to do if the land isn’t reenrolled in the conservation program. The Secretary said;

Vilsack: “On the CRP we are awaiting the additional environmental information that has to be completed as a condition precedent to a general sign up. Our hope is we get this done expeditiously. We recognize the pressure that producers are under, landowners are under, and we are under to get this done as soon as possible. I am a little concerned about to committing to you on a specific month because in the limited time I have been in Washington I have seen too often when I say July it winds up being July of 2011 instead of July of 2010. But I will commit to you we are anxious to get this done quickly, as quickly at possible and as soon as that environmental work is done we are going to be ready to move.”

The environmental impact statement the USDA is awaiting on the CRP was done in an effort to avoid lawsuits, which the department has been subject to in the past over CRP decisions.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.