02/15/07 Why USDA proposes CRP hold

Farm and Ranch February 15, 2007 When he recently unveiled USDA's proposed fiscal year 2008 budget Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said that no general sign ups for the Conservation Reserve Program are assumed in 2007 or 2008. Johanns said the reason was that we need acres for corn production to meet demand for ethanol. Of course the Pacific Northwest is not the cornbelt, something that was pointed out to USDA Undersecretary Thomas Dorr at the recent Pacific Northwest Farm Forum by Darryl Parsons of Coulee City, Washington. Parsons: "Obviously out here in eastern Washington is more of a dryland area which we do not have the corn ability out here. Would that be addressing for us out here also. (Dorr) That is a great question. I don't have the answer for that." In fairness to Undersecretary Dorr, his expertise is in rural development. But USDA's chief economist Keith Collins offers a little broader reason for the CRP general sign up hold than just corn and ethanol. Collins: "We are looking at near record wheat prices. Record corn prices. Very tight row crop markets across the board. High feed prices for the livestock sector. In that kind of environment if you hold general sign ups you in effect bid land away from crop production." In fact USDA is going to decide early this summer if it will allow some land in CRP to come out early for crop production. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.