Tadpole wrote:Newb question..what is CRP?
Jughead got the gist of it. CRP actually stands for Conservation Reserve Program. It is a soil conservation program to remove erodible soils from crop production by holding that soil in place with grass, which in turn does lower the amount of wheat and other grains it would have produced. It preserves those high risk soils for future use by making a payment to a landowner to place the field in grass for a period of 10 years. As all government programs go they have supporters and detractors who make their inputs into the process through lobbyists. The final version of this farm program represented a coalition of NRA, Ducks unlimited and other hunting groups plus of course the small ag interests but not the big ag lobby of fertilizer and chemical companies and grain shippers who generally oppose lessening their sales volumes with these programs which shrink the acres being farmed, directly affecting their sales. The newest entrant to offer support for the program is the state of South Dakota itself who is looking at losing huge acreages of available hunting lands coming out as these older CRP contracts expire, causing a large drop in the revenues of hunting license sales and the corresponding drop in hunters who travel here and spend millions of dollars each year with restaurants,hotels liquor and hunting gear sales being the biggest beneficiaries. To counter this drop in economic activity, and anticipated drop in sales tax collections, the state is offering what is known as the CREP program. It stands for Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. In addition to the federal payment of the regular CRP, the farmer can get a payment from the state also if the land is at least 40 continuous acres and has water for wildlife located on it. The landowner must also agree that it will be open to public access for hunting year round. Private commercial hunting does not benefit. The federal and state payments combined will bring nearly what the market price of land rent does now. Landowners are signing up eligible fields cautiously, even though they will be locked in to receiving the same payment for the next ten years while the rental rates for this land, if it had remained in farming would creep upward during that same time and if signed up, the landowner will have the additional expense of controlling noxious weeds for the next ten years out of his own pocket, but if he rented it out for farming the renting farmer would be doing that for him for free. There are tradeoffs each way.
Now back to the planning stages of my grass strip grand opening which most likely will not happen till next year. I expect soybean harvest to happen at the end of September and corn harvest to run until the snow flies. I possibly will have the strip ready before real winter sets in but ice on the stock dam would shrink the Skydive206 bikini crowd along with other participanting factions. Did I spell that right?