CRP sign up deadline is May 30

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

May 29, 2003 -- Eligible agricultural producers are reminded the sign-up deadline for the 26th Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is May 30, according to Farm Service Agency's (FSA) newletters. Also, CRP participants with contracts expiring on Sept. 30, 2003 or 2004, may submit a new offer during this sign-up.

The CRP is a voluntary program, with contract periods of 10 or 15 years, available to ag producers to help them safeguard environmentally sensitive land, explains the Collin County FSA newsletter. In return for the enrollment, FSA provides participants with rental payments and cost-share assistance.

There are a few changes to this CRP from previous ones.

H. Paul Newhouse, county executive director for Collin Collin, stated producers are allowed to hay or graze with a payment reduction this time. The haying or grazing can not be done during the bird nesting season. Therefore, producers are only allowed to hay or graze after July 1.

Another difference to this CRP deals with the cropland. After meeting the cropland definition, land must be planted or considered planted to an agricultural commodity four of the previous six years, according to Russ Garmon, county executive director for Hunt County.

In related information, Newhouse noted his county doesn't have many CRPs because of urban influence. Producers don't want to sign 10-year contracts in case they sell their land to potential buyers from the metroplex, he explained. If the land is sold before the contract expires, producers would have to pay back the CRP funding.

Garmon added Hunt County also doesn't have many CRPs, citing the reasonings are a major urban emphasis and the ground doesn't meet the erodibility requirement.

"Hunt County is now considered urban. Not that much of the farm land in the county sells for its agricultural value," Garmon said.

For more information about the CRP program, contact the FSA office in your county.