12/14/06 CRP, 1.8 billion dollars worth

The Conservation Reserve Program or CRP has been a big hit with US ag producers. In fact, 1.8 billion dollars in rental payments were made recently to current CRP contract holders all across this country. JOHNSON "We have over 730 thousand contracts and over 425 thousand farms." That's Farm Service Agency deputy director John Johnson. He says the national average payment is $48.88 per acre. But in Idaho, where CRP is very popular, the per-acre payout is about 39 dollars. For 2007 there are more than 58 hundred contracts for nearly 33 hundred 50 Idaho farms. Those Idaho CRP contracts will cover about 800 thousand 500 acres and the rental payments coming to producers total nearly 31.2 million dollars. In Oregon the payouts will be nearly 26.5 million. Washington 78 million and Montana, the nation's third highest, receives nearly 117 million dollars in CRP rental payments this fiscal year. JOHNSON "We have authority in the farm bill to enroll up to 39.2 million acres. Our current enrollment stands at just slightly over 36 million acres." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott