10/07/05 CRP payment time; CRP maintenance

10/07/05 CRP payment time; CRP maintenance

Washington Ag Sept 29, 2005 Annual Conservation Reserve Program payments add up to big bucks in Washington state. USDA is making the fiscal year 2005 payments and they total over 73-million dollars for Washington landowners and producers. Nationally the payments total 1.7 billion. There are over 11-thousand CRP contracts in Washington on nearly 1.4 million acres of cropland that has been taken out of production and planted with resource conserving covers to improve water quality, control soil erosion and enhance wildlife habitat. Even though it is not being cropped CRP does have to be maintained. At some recent meetings held by the State Office of the Farm Service Agency Director Jim Fitzgerald heard about the increasing costs to do that. Fitzgerald: "Of course fuel costs are higher. Equipment costs are higher. We haven't made an adjustment in our maintenance rate. See there is a base rental rate and then about a $5 an acre add on for maintenance of CRP. It costs more money to maintain the ground. To do weed control. Herbicides possibly. Supplemental fertilizer, mowing that kind of thing. So we should take another look at increasing the maintenance cost." For the same reasons Fitzgerald says there should be reconsideration of the costs of establishing new CRP. I'm Bob Hoff.
Previous Report10/06/05 Fighting trade barriers; GoAg
Next Report10/10/05 Seeking disaster status; L&I hearings