USDA Acts to Conserve Conservation Reserve Program

Bobwhite. Photo: Bill Hubick

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week that it will not allow farmers to plant crops on lands set aside in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) without paying the normal penalty for breaking their contract. Restrictions on grazing and haying were lifted in May by USDA to help livestock producers struggling with high feed prices, resulting from large quantities of corn being diverted for biofuel production. The Department was under heavy pressure to also open CRP lands to farming by interests who sought to increase harvest and lower crop prices.

“The Conservation Reserve Program has proven very effective at conserving grassland habitats for bird species such as Grasshopper Sparrows, Lark Bunting, Northern Bob-white, and Eastern Meadowlarks, as well as wetlands in the Prairie Pothole region important to waterfowl,” said Darin Schroeder, American Bird Conservancy’s Vice President of Government Relations. “This decision is a victory for conservationists because ending the penalties would have severely undermined the program, which is already steadily losing enrolled acres.”

High commodity prices are encouraging farmers to boost production by tilling marginal CRP farmlands that are better left fallow to conserve soils and water quality, and to provide habitat important to birds and other wildlife. Farmers who remove lands from the program early must payback the CRP rents that they have received, with interest and a 25 percent penalty. Despite the cost, many farmers are opting out of the program. In the last 19 months, farmers have paid the penalty to remove 288,726 acres from the program.

Still more farmers will have an opportunity to opt out of their contracts when their CRP contacts expire. Contacts covering 1.1 million acres will expire in September, and over the next two years nearly one-quarter of the program’s currently enrolled 34.7 million acres could be put back into production.

“We are pleased the USDA will maintain the program, and grateful to producers who have chosen to enroll in the CRP program. Its benefits for wildlife and society are numerous,” said Barton James of Ducks Unlimited. "We plan to work with the USDA and producers to ensure that CRP remains an attractive option in this new economic environment.”

Ducks Unlimited estimates that the CRP adds more than 2.2 million ducks to the annual migration. It also is responsible for removing more than 50 million tons of CO2 from the air as well as conserving more than 470 million tons of topsoil in the past year alone.