Tough Competition for CRP Contracts

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Successful Farming reports:

 

At the end of September, contracts for nearly 1.7 million acres of land enrolled in the CRP will expire. Getting land into the CRP is more competitive than ever with low commodity prices and fewer CRP acres available because of the 2014 Farm Bill CRP reduction of 8 million acres.

Of the expiring acres, 211,000 were accepted into the program again through CRP General Sign-Up 49, but the 500,000 expiring continuous acres will have to wait until October 1 to see what’s available. Around 900,000 of the expiring acres were rejected from reentering the CRP because the land no longer had a high enough environmental benefit index (EBI) score.

This year’s qualifying EBI score was 292, which is much higher than the 2013 qualifying EBI score that was closer to 220. Only 411,000 acres of the more than 1.85 million acres offered were accepted in CRP General Sign-Up 49 that ended in March. The state of South Dakota’s CRP acceptance rate was only .02{75e25ebeb47fb4337942be2c10689dca1c292c2a66240b62c5ca4214f5b25ecc}.

With cash rents declining, it isn’t a huge surprise that landowners are scrounging to stay profitable. One of the ways they are doing that is by trying to get land, even whole farms, into the CRP.


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Source:  Successful Farming


Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS

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