Conservation Reserve Program rental payments issued

The fall temperatures of late have been a very pleasant respite from this summer's relentless surge of hot/dry days. The "dry" part is sticking with us for now; but, thankfully, the "hot" part appears to have passed.

The rainfall measured at Fort Scott during September was 2.17 inches compared to 15.37 inches received in September 2010. For the year to date, the amount measured is almost exactly 10 inches below the long term average. This total is short for sure, but only amounts to a 28.4 percent shortfall for the year so far -- could be worse, I guess. Livestock water supply is becoming an issue as we head into winter -- some run-off is badly needed.

Rainfall aside, there were a number of anticipated activities that did arrive on a timely basis this year. One of those was the annual rental payments for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) as well as amounts due under the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP).

Beginning Oct. 3, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) distributed CRP rental payments to participants across the country. USDA's Farm Service Agency administers CRP, while technical support functions are provided by public and private sector partners.

CRP is a voluntary program that helps agricultural producers safeguard environmentally sensitive land and provide millions of acres of habitat for game and non-game wildlife species. Participants enroll in CRP contracts for 10 to 15 years. Currently, total CRP enrollment stands at 29.9 million acres.

"CRP protects millions of acres of American topsoil from erosion and is designed to safeguard (our country's) natural resources," FSA Administrator Bruce Nelson said. "By reducing water runoff and sedimentation, CRP protects groundwater and helps improve the condition of lakes, rivers, ponds and streams. Acreage enrolled in the CRP is planted to resource-conserving vegetative covers, making the program a major contributor to increased wildlife populations in many parts of the country."

The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) makes annual rental payments based on the agriculture rental value of the land. USDA also issues non-rental CRP payments throughout the year. These payments include a 50 percent expense reimbursement for establishing and managing cover, as well as incentive payments for enrolling eligible high priority conservation practices. Beginning after Oct. 1, producers holding 752,000 contracts on 417,000 farms received an average CRP renpayment of $55.06 per acre.

Producers earned an average payment of $4,115 per farm enrolled in the program. Included in the totals are 414,000 contracts (5.1 million acres) for continuous CRP enrollments and 338,000 contracts (24.8 million acres) enrolled under general CRP. In all, the payments total approximately $1.7 billion.

A table, located at fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/apportstate091311.pdf, lists acreage enrollments by state, number of contracts, number of farms, acres enrolled as of the end of the 2011 fiscal year and CRP projected rental payments for fiscal year 2012.

Iowa farmers lead the country in total CRP benefits gathering approximately $212 million. Kansas is fifth on the list of states ($109 million) and Missouri sixth ($100 million) for total CRP annual rental payments.

Beginning in mid-October, final direct payments for the DCP and ACRE programs began disbursement to more than 1.1 million producers enrolled in these programs.

Participants in DCP or ACRE had the option of receiving a 22 percent advance direct payment when the farm was enrolled or delaying the direct payment until after the end of the fiscal year.

Editor's Note: Doug Niemeir is the County Executive Director for the USDA/Farm Service Agency. Doug may be reached by emailing him at Douglas.Niemeir@ks.usda.gov.