The enrollment period for the Federal Conservation Reserve Program opened Tuesday. This month marks the 30th anniversary of the federally funded program and as of September, 24.2 million acres were enrolled in the program. USDA says CRP also is protecting more than 170,000 stream miles with riparian forest and grass buffers, enough to go around the world 7 times. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called CRP “one of the most successful conservation programs in the history of the country.” Contracts on 1.64 million acres of CRP are set to expire on September 30th, 2016. Producers with expiring contracts or producers with environmentally sensitive land are encouraged to evaluate their options under CRP. The enrollment period ends February 26th, 2016.
USDA encouraged interested farmers to contact their local Farm Service Agency to learn more or go online to fsa dot usda dot gov (www.fsa.usda.gov).