Disaster declaration gives producers some flexibility

A disaster declaration Thursday of 82 Kansas counties, including Bourbon, should make life somewhat easier for local producers as it includes a bit of flexibility.

The county -- and those surrounding it -- is considered to be in a D2 drought designation, which in the past would not allow producers to graze or hay their Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, land. The designation just announced will give landowners the option of requesting to hay or let their livestock graze the CRP land, said Doug Niemeier, county executive director with Farm Service Agency in Fort Scott.

Also, in years past if a producer hayed their CRP land, they would have to give up 25 percent of the rental payment they would receive from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That has been modified to 10 percent, Niemeier said.

"The big change is that haying wasn't available before now. Our state director can approve that if we are past the nesting period for game birds, which ends Sunday, July 15," Niemeier said. The requests can be approved today, which would let them take effect Monday.

"We will be prepared to start taking applications. There will be some preliminary paperwork" where producers who are on CRP contracts agree that this is "OK" and it's something they want to do, Niemeier said. This moves things forward faster than it has before, he added.

If producers want to let their livestock graze the CRP land, they can for the most part munch all the acreage, but if they decide to make hay, the restriction is "you can only hay half."

Before the land was in CRP, Niemeier said much of it was likely a crop field.

"A lot of the CRP fields are not fenced, nor do they have a water source," Niemeier said.

He said he wants to make sure landowners contact the local FSA office to help get their paperwork started. "We have a couple of days to process the paperwork" and plan for haying or grazing before it commences. "There are some practices that are not eligible for this, so when we talk to the producers, we will point that out. That's another reason we need to see people," Niemeier said.

The FSA office phone number is (620) 223-1880 and it is located at 1515 S. Judson, Fort Scott.

Kansas disaster

designations:

Primary counties:

Allen, Anderson, Barber, Barton, Bourbon, Butler, Chautquaua, Cheyenne, Clark, Coffey, Comanche, Cowley, Crawford, Decatur, Edwards, Elk, Finney, Ford, Gove, Graham, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Greenwood, Hamilton, Harper, Harvey, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearney, Kingman, Kiowa, Labette, Lane, Linn, Logan, Lyon, McPherson, Meade, Montgomery, Morton, Neosho, Ness, Norton, Pawnee, Phillips, Pratt, Rawlins, Reno, Rice, Rooks, Scott, Sedgwick, Seward, Sheridan, Sherman, Stafford, Stanton, Stevens, Sumner, Thomas, Trego, Wallace, Wichita, Wilson and Woodson

Contiguous counties:

Chase, Cherokee, Dickinson, Ellis, Ellsworth, Franklin, Marion, Morris, Miami, Osage, Osborne, Rush, Russell, Saline, Smith and Wabaunsee.