Conservation Reserve Program CRP?

Question

How does this program work? How are the payments to the farmer figured out? What is the process for re-contracting the ground to CRP? What things can you do with the land while it is under CRP? Sorry lots of questions but I am interested in the subject.

Answer 1

John T. answered this pretty well.  Payments are based on productivity indexes of the soil types and slope.  It should be considered a program for land that is erodable and difficult to farm.  With the current farm commodity prices you will want to do your homework and decide whether the land is better served to produce grain or hay or placed into the setaside program.  Farmers need land to farm and the CRP should not be used as a source of income rather than a program to control erosion of the farmland.  Farmers today do an excellent job of tillage so talk to the tenants on the farm and see what their perspective of the farm is and what direction to take.

Answer 2

the farmer make a contract with USDA(united states dept. of AG) to set aside his property for fallow because of low market prices of a commodity....the contract is usually 7-10 years. and the farmer gets so much per acre .the land cannot be used to grow any commodities that USDA deemed to be a CRP crop....

Answer 3

i have used the program before.  when it came time to renew they told me i would have to plant different grass and maintain a certain number of specific trees to keep my payment at its current level. i opted out.

best thing to do is talk to you usda natural resource conservation agent.  there isnt a standard payment rate. they will assess all farms on an individual basis.  timing is also a key. when funding is low they dont offer very lucrative contracts.  when the funding is good so are the contracts.

Answer 4

the crp program was designed to take highly erodible land out of production crp payment is figured on soil type percent of slope and some other things you are not allowed to produce any ag commodities from this land you can put in wildlife plots and lease the land for hunting i live in west ky and now one requirement is to sow the ground in native grasses to this area i am sure some of the requirements very in other areas i farm and view this program as a waste most people inthis area who have put their farms in the crp couldnt make a living farming so basicly they leased their farm to the goverment i hate the program if you dont want to to the work to farm or cant make it farming sell out and let those of us who can make a living farming farm

Answer 5

I'm a small farmer.  I'm very much AGAINST the CRP.  

CRP was started in the mid 1980's, when so many farmers/farms were going under.  

I realize they SAY the program is to try and perserve soil and water quality, as well as provide habitat for wildlife.  

It was really a program to try and perserve farm land, during a crissis time when farmers were going under, from the land being sold to developers.  I completely agree with the notion that the U.S.A. needs to perserve every scrap of farmland we still have and stop building subdivisions, strip malls and gas stations on it.

It it the methods, and rules put forth by the CRP that I completely disagree with.

I live in Idaho.  A lot of farms around here are in CRP for 10-20 years.  You cannot withdraw your farmland from CRP without having to pay all the money back, plus interest.  Not even if things have completely changed, and we (the U.S.) really need that farmland to swing back into production.

I'm in the very heart of potato country.  This area is desert.  Water rights are a BIG deal around here.  Multi-millionare agri business men were able to buy up farm ground cheap.  They then sold off the water rights.  That means there are no water rights for that land, and it will NEVER be farmed again.  Then these multi-millionares enrolled the land in CRP programs.  

How on earth is that possibly fair that the tax payers are paying to keep farmland in CRP that can never be farmed again?  There is no more water for this land.

So that is one huge pitfall for me personally....I do not agree with programs that allow multi-millionares to bennifit via loopeholes.

Once land is in CRP it cannot be used, period.  So during lush spring growth, you cannot graze domestic stock on it.

Instead brush and growth is allowed to pile up, year after year.  Guess what happens?  Huge range fires.  What would have been natural is to have a herd of a few million buffalo graze over the ground, leave the grass short, and little fuel for serrious range fires.

Instead CRP helps fuel rangefires.  Since farmers are not allowed to run domestic cattle, sheep, or horses over it, the dead grasses pile up, year after year in un-natural ways.  Again this sticks it to the tax payer as it is the taxpayer who eventually foots the bill for putting out wildfires.

The CRP program requires the farmer to continue to use chemicals on their land.  Instead of being able to run a herd of goats over the land for proven weed control (and fire supression) the farmer is required to go out and spray chemicals (petrolium based) to control weeds.  I'd like to know exactly how the spraying of chemicals is helping to preserve soil, and ground water quality?

So if you have land in CRP, you can hike around on it.  Spray chemicals on it.  You can look at it.  Oh yes, one other thing CRP lands help to do.  CRP lands help (far more than the BLM lands) to provide habitat for serrious pest insects, like grasshoppers, and mormon crickets.

The land is un-disturbed, and filled with food.  It is the perfect breeding ground for these pest insects (BLM land is at least grazed by livestock).  With no plowing, to turn over the insect eggs to sunlight, and bird predation, and rampent amounts of food, serrious insect populations that are very harmful to crops can explode out of CRP land.

Again that costs the tax payer big money, when the Government begins to do airial spraying of the insects to try and control them.  Not to mention the cost to individual farmers.

CRP is a nice "idea."  In practice however it's pretty crappy.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 6

i dont know