News

Lower CRP acreage cap will lead to erodible land being farmed

The lower cap on Conservation Reserve Program acres has resulted in fewer bids being accepted for enrollment.  Missouri Farm Service Agency Executive Director Mark Cadle tells Brownfield that out of 122,000 Missouri acres offered, only 21,000 were accepted.

“Many of our counties over the past few years have seen an acceptance rate of well over 90 to 95 percent, and in some counties, one county in particular, Carroll County comes to mind, had over 230 applications, had one accepted offer,” said Cadle.

There are other Missouri counties that have no CRP acres in the latest sign-up, according to Cadle.  He says lower commodity prices have increased the number of acres being offered for enrollment in the program.  Many of those acres, he says, would be better off left fallow.

“We’re going to see some producers farming some land that is highly erodible that it might have been in the public’s best interest for the land to have been sown down and under a different type cover,” said Cadle.

Nationally, in the latest CRP sign-up, of 1.8 million acres offered for inclusion the program, 400,000 acres were allowed in, according to Cadle, an acceptance rate of 18 percent.

AUDIO: Mark Cadle (6 min. MP3)