Expiring CRP - What To Do?

by Michael A. Debes, Resource Conservationist
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Dodge City, Kansas

My Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres are expiring. What should I do? This question is being asked throughout farm country this year and will be heard for several more years to come. The 2008 Farm Bill allows for 32 million acres or approximately 2.7 million less acres in CRP than are currently enrolled nationally. This reduction in acres will likely come about through the attrition of expiring general CRP contracts.

The time to begin thinking about the use of these acres is at least a year before contract expiration. At the individual landowner/operator level, the issues are usually economics and desired land uses. Both of these individual issues can also be very complex to evaluate. A good thing to do with hard and complex issues is try to simplify them.

Am I or my operator in a position to return this established grass stand to cultivation and make a profit growing grain? If so, will all of the acres generate a profit? Most tracts of land in Kansas contain both good, fertile farm ground and infertile, unprofitable acres. If returning the tract to cultivation is your decision, why not just farm the good acres and leave those non-profitable acres in grass? Many times we think that farming the whole quarter is the most economical process. I am already farming most of it; I will just farm the whole thing and it will be cheaper. The truth is with today’s high production costs, every acre has to pay its own way.

The Continuous CRP (CCRP) offers many opportunities to re-enroll parts of expiring general CRP acres into the CCRP. These are usually parts of the field that are not profitable to farm so why not receive CCRP benefits on these acres?

Many of these expiring contracts also contain those areas called “wet areas.” In reality, these areas are harvested once in a while even though money is expended every year to farm them. They definitely are not profitable to farm. There are also several options to enroll “wet areas” in programs that will make them profitable.

If the desired land use is to graze these acres, planning needs to start now. In many cases there are management practices that can be applied before contract expiration that will enhance the grazing quality. There are also several cost-share opportunities for water development and cross-fencing. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) personnel are available to assist with grazing advice for these acres. These decisions take time to plan and implement, so start now!

Contact your local NRCS office or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center to discuss options for expiring CRP acres before they expire!

For more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS Web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

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Last Modified: 12/09/2008