3M Acres of Farmland No Longer Protected

Government's Conservation Program Thinned; Farmers Worry about Erosion and Commodity Prices

(AP)  Surveying undulating grasslands that disappear into the western Kansas horizon, retired farmer Joe Govert pointed out parcel after parcel no longer enrolled in a federal program that pays property owners not to farm environmentally sensitive land.

The arid, wind-swept ground stripped of topsoil by Dust Bowl storms has laid undisturbed beneath a protective cover of native grasses that took two decades to re-establish under the Conservation Reserve Program. But millions of those acres are being plowed again after the 2008 Farm Bill capped the program at 32 million acres.

More than 3.4 million acres nationwide were taken out of the program in September when the owners' contracts expired. Most of them were in Texas, Colorado and Kansas, but hundreds of thousands of acres also came out in Montana and the Dakotas.

The environmental and economic repercussions could extend beyond the nation's Heartland with a greater risk of new dust storms, soil erosion and water pollution. Farmers also worry more grain will mean even lower commodity crop prices.

CRP pays landowners not to farm easily eroded land, while splitting with them the cost of establishing vegetative cover. The goal is to reduce soil erosion and sedimentation in streams and lakes, improve water quality and establish wildlife habitat.

The program has created millions of acres of habitat for quail, pheasant, prairie chickens and other wildlife and established filter strips and forested buffers to protect streams, lakes and rivers from sedimentation and agricultural runoff.

In return, farmers receive annual rental payments on 10-, 15- and 20-year contracts. With payments averaging $51 per acre per year, the program cost about $2 billion in fiscal year 2008.

Govert, 85, put all his land — about 750 acres — in the program in 1987 and got rid of his farm equipment. His contracts expired last month and for the most part cannot be extended.

With the government checks ending and property taxes and other bills to pay, Govert said he has little choice but to break up the ground to farm again — or sell it to someone who will.

"This stuff has roots," he said as he looked glumly across a field in Greeley County near the Colorado state line. "It is well established. This is what hurts. It took years to get it established."

But much of the land can be farmed again without harming the environment, said Adrian Polansky, director of the Farm Service Agency overseeing CRP in Kansas. Modern agricultural practices, such as no-till farming, curb soil erosion. CRP also gives a higher priority for re-enrolling the most environmentally sensitive acres.

Polansky also noted the program was more about the economy than the environment when Congress authorized it amid the farm crisis in 1985.

"We had producers, landowners, banks, suppliers that were in dire financial straits," said Polansky, himself a third-generation farmer. "So in those early years ... It was in a sense an economic rescue-type program to stabilize land prices."

Still, CRP was criticized early on for hastening the decline of rural towns. With fewer farmers tilling the ground, farm equipment dealerships closed and grain elevators consolidated. Many farmers moved away, and government payments often went to absent landowners.

By the time lawmakers scaled down the program in the latest farm bill, CRP protected 39.2 million acres with contracts expiring between now and 2012.

Bringing the land back into production is not expected to reverse the loss of small family farms: Today's growers can farm vast tracts with modern equipment, seamlessly absorbing new acres into existing operations.

But it could stimulate rural economies, with more sales of fertilizer, seed and other supplies; more business for grain elevators; and lower costs for corn, grain sorghum and other feedstocks used by ethanol plants and livestock feedlots. Lower commodity prices also might help reduce food prices for consumers.

Land auctions are already drawing farmers eager to expand their holdings. Govert said land he bought in 1950 for $55 an acre now sells for nearly $900 an acre, and a recent auction averaged as much as $1,100 an acre.

In some areas, change is in the air — literally. Thick plumes of smoke rise from thousands of acres where native grasses are being set afire in preparation for tilling. Most of those rough acres are expected to be seeded into wheat or grain sorghum, hardy crops that can survive in low quality soils and arid climates.

But even as some farmers expand, many worry about the effect on commodity markets when there's already a global grain glut.

"The timing of this is absolutely horrible," said Vance Ehmke, who farms near Healy in west-central Kansas. "You have all these acres coming out (of CRP) when the bottom has come out of the grain market. All we need is more ground going back into production."

[kansas1946]

The environmental and economic repercussions could extend beyond the nation's Heartland with a greater risk of new dust storms, soil erosion and water pollution. Farmers also worry more grain will mean even lower commodity crop prices.
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I would invite anyone who thinks this is not a bad idea to read, "The Worst Hard Time", a book by Timothy Egan on the dust-bowl years. People now probably think the dust storms just made everything hazy for a couple of days, and then, cleared up. I live in Kansas and was in one true dust storm when I was a little kid. It is a scary thing, and they were responsible for thousands of deaths. I don't think you want to go back to stripping the only significant grasslands left in the country.

[armyoftwelve]

Can soneone say "SUBDIVISION POTENTIAL"!!??????

[jwesel1]

Farmers also worry more grain will mean even lower commodity crop prices.
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The selfishness knows no bound. People are dying in Africa of hunger and here the farmers are worried that over supply of grain will lower the prices. Just give the land to Africans and tney will grow their grains on it.

[dwilson59]

jwesel1

You are correct 100% they took the land from the white owners Killed them and gave it to the true African people. Now they grow nothing.




If you over produce some of this land it could go back to the dust bowl and at the same time would also drive down the cost.

[Sloughfoot]

Put the farmer on the reservation (he's been getting a welfare check since the 50's) and give the land back to the Indian. Nuff said!

[endurorob_5]

Shouldn't that be "slowfoot"?

[Ms_enza]

Wow endurorob_5, what an amazing display of ignorance. It would be "slewfoot" if anything.

[endurorob_5]

Or sluf. Or in the original english sloh (slow). The point is Ms_enza you missed the point of the joke.

[dwilson59]

Can we just blame this on Bush?

[dangyankee69]

So the government was paying to conserve an area the size of Illinois. Now they can't afford it so they are turning some of it back (an area the size of Connecticut). Some of us have known this kind of thing was coming for a while. There is a limit to how far you can overextend yourself. Even if you are the US Treasury.

What's amazing is that the "Green" lobby is upset about this, but still fights stewardship efforts in national forests that would prevent the destruction of a comparable size of territory.

But why be consistent in your arguement. Conserve farmland, allow forests to burn. The only consistent underpinning is, "Don't allow anybody to make a living logging or farming, we are better off putting them on the dole." Blue State Logic = BS Logic.

[Ms_enza]

You should move to India and Brazil, where soon, no trees will exist.

[legacyABQ2]

The earth literally cannot function without trees.

[dontknowitall]

The fed will now save $2 billion on the closure of this program and spend at least that much on the cell phones for Welfare Program. Yup sounds like an even exchange...Pause..... Puke.

[biminijoe]

Paying Farmers to conserve land..... what a waste ... all coming from a " RED" state that bemoans government spending on social programs. What gets me is that dispite the good reasons, that the farmer points out, for not farming the land, he intends to plow it. All to flood the market with grain that is not needed. Be sure to see the Big Agro lobyists start clamering for more ethanol. That kind of government mandate is ok .... when you're a RED state

[endurorob_5]

The farmer still has to pay taxes on the land so there is no choice but to find a way to get revenue from it. But libs wouldn't thnk about that. You would have him continue conserving tha land and pay taxes for it until he goes bankrupt.

[warner0683]

Why don't you go out and buy his land from him to keep him from farming it. Then you can be sure that it remains un-plowed while you pay the taxes on it.

[legacyABQ2]

why dont we just give him a tax deferment?

[biminijoe]

Paying Farmers to conserve land..... what a waste ... all coming from a " RED" state that bemoans government spending on social programs. What gets me is that dispite the good reasons, that the farmer points out, for not farming the land, he intends to plow it. All to flood the market with grain that is not needed. Be sure to see the Big Agro lobyists start clamering for more ethanol. That kind of government mandate is ok .... when you're a RED state

[inketolstoy]

Cry me a river biminijoe. How dare those hypocritical RED staters suck precious money from the more important BLUE states. Keep telling those people that put food on America's table and pay the taxes that give the government the excuses to spend trillions more than it makes in federal handouts to illegal immigrants, the UAW and failed bank presidents for their bonuses. Then again, maybe your just mad you spent all that money on them with your progressive style handouts but don't own them yet.

[kansas1946]

Unfortunately, you are right. The farmers want to suck up to Republicans because they think they are more "moral." I have yet to meet a Republican that I thought acted like a Christian, but as long as they bash gays, then they are at home with Jesus.
Fortunately, Kansas is fairly purple. We have democratic governors all of the time, but can't seem to manage to elect a democratic senator. That is how we got stuck with Brownback. Ugh. Anyway, bad idea to rip up grass.