A smaller spurd crop; CSP payments being made
Washington Ag Today November 10, 2010 Washington farmers harvested fewer potatoes this fall than last year. The Washington Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service puts this year’s production in the state at about 81.7-thousand hundredweight, about seven percent less than in 2009. The agency says yields were the same as last year at 610 hundredweight per acre but growers planted and harvested fewer acres. Harvested acres were pegged at 134-thousand, down ten thousand acres from 2009. NASS says Washington dry pea and lentil production was also down from last year. Dry pea production fell 42 percent due to lower acreage and yields. Lentil acreage was the same as in 2009 but lower yields dropped production to 675-thousand hundredweight. The USDA says it will begin issuing Conservation Stewardship and Conservation Security Program payments this month. The CSP rewards agricultural producers for their conservation efforts on working land and encourages them to do more. Washington producers will receive about six million dollars in payments under the new Conservation Stewardship Program and about five million under the old CSP. Dwayne Howard of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service reminds producers there is currently a CSP sign up underway. Howard: “We are looking to enroll and additional 12-million acres.” And that nationwide sign up continues until January 7th. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
