Feds add 1,274 acres to county’s CRP rolls

More than 5,137 acres of Whitman County land was accepted into the federal Conservation Reserve Program under the signup for general CRP held this spring.

Kathy Wolfe, director of the Whitman County office of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, said only 1,274 of the 5,137 acres accepted were new enrollments. The remaining 3,862.9 acres was ground already enrolled in CRP contracts that are set to expire this October.

All of the contracts awarded this spring were in the General CRP program. General CRP accounts for enrollment of entire fields, while continuous CRP is used for targeted areas with high risk of environmental impact such as hilltops and stream beds.

Under CRP, landowners receive payments under long-term contracts to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production.

Wolfe credited landowners for choosing the protective environmental benefits of enrolling land in CRP instead of planting more valuable crops on that ground.

“Even with the recent high grain prices, Washington farmers and ranchers realize that some of the land may have greater value as wildlife habitat,” said Wolfe.

Wolfe did not have an average rental rate for this round of CRP, but last year’s rate was $79.33 per acre per year.

The new enrollment ups the county’s total CRP acreage from 189,474.5 to 190,749.1, roughly 19 percent of the county’s nearly one million acres.

This year’s general CRP signup was the agency’s second since 2007. A signup was conducted last year after a three-year hiatus.

Federal regulations limit the amount of a county’s ground in CRP to 25 percent. A local restriction allows only 22 percent to be general CRP.

Right now, 149,441 acres of Whitman County is in general CRP, with the remaining 41,307 in the continuous program.

Wolfe said contracts on about 9,915 acres of land in CRP are set to expire Oct. 1.

Across the state, the USDA accepted contract offers on more than 90,000 acres of land, bringing the state total to more than 1.5 million acres. More than 90 percent of the state’s 850 CRP offers were accepted.

Nationally, 2.8 million acres were accepted into CRP under this spring’s signup, bringing the overall total to 29.9 million acres.

Contracts are awarded based on a USDA system which ranks the environmental benefits of enrolling land.