General CRP sign up starts today

General CRP sign up starts today

Washington Ag Today August 2, 2010 A general sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program begins today and runs through August 27th at local Farm Service Agency offices. The timing may not be the best for northwest wheat growers who are harvesting, but FSA Administrator Jonathan Coppess says the agency wants to get the sign up and acceptance process completed before the end of September when some current CRP contracts expire. In Washington contracts will expire on nearly 173-thousand acres.

Coppess: “You know we’ve got to take a few weeks to evaluate the offers, make sure we turn them around by the end of the fiscal year. We‘ve got a four week run for them that if they are interested we really hope they can find some time in harvest to get in the office.”

Coppess says the environmental benefits index used to score bids has been tweaked from previous sign ups.

Coppess: “One of the big ones is that we added points to the wildlife habitat category. We added 20 points if you are putting in pollinator habitat.”

Coppess says the 25% cap on cropland being enrolled in CRP in a county continues.

Coppess: “The farm bill had a few changes. It added authority for the secretary to exclude cropland that‘s been enrolled under a CRP continuous sign up or the CREP. So that wouldn‘t count against the 25% percent cap, so long as the county government agrees with that.”

Again, interested landowners of eligible cropland have until August 27th to bid in this the 39th general CRP sign up.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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