Hello again,
As I try to decipher all the seed corn and chemical advertisements to buy the best for less sure is enough to make the brain foggy. It’s the same way with some of our programs as well.
Let me assure you the people working in the county offices will do their very best to assist you with all the U.S. Department of Agriculture programs.
New program
USDA will offer a new Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands practice for small-scale livestock grazing operations. Livestock operations with 100 or fewer head of grazing dairy cows (or the equivalent) can submit applications to enroll up to 200 acres of grasslands per farm.
USDA’s goal is to enroll up to 200,000 acres. The new practice for livestock grazers aims, in part, to encourage greater diversity geographically and in all types of livestock operations.
This opportunity will close Dec. 16. Offers selected this fiscal year will be enrolled into CRP Grasslands beginning Oct. 1, 2017.
Participants in CRP Grasslands establish or maintain long-term, resource-conserving grasses and other plant species to control soil erosion, improve water quality and develop wildlife habitat on marginally productive agricultural lands.
Land use
CRP Grasslands participants can use the land for livestock production (e.g. grazing or producing hay), while following their conservation and grazing plans in order to maintain the cover. A goal of CRP Grasslands is to minimize conversion of grasslands either to row crops or to non-agricultural uses. Participants can receive annual payments of up to 75 percent of the grazing value of the land and up to 50 percent to fund cover or practices like cross-fencing to support rotational grazing or improving pasture cover to benefit pollinators or other wildlife.
For additional program provisions, contact your local FSA office. FSA Dates to remember include the wheat reporting deadline of Dec. 15, and the MPP signup and CRP deadline of Dec. 16.
That’s all for now,
FSA Andy
