The Agriculture Department has agreed to enroll 1.07 million acres in the Conservation Reserve Program this year out of the 1.19 million acres offered by landowners under general signup rules.
The average annual payment rate for the land will be $64 per acre, according to USDA.
Applications were rated on an environmental benefits index with a maximum possible score of 545, and acreage with a score of at least 184 was deemed acceptable.
Just over 23 million acres of land are currently enrolled in CRP, well short of the current limit of 27 million acres, according to USDA’s latest monthly report. Some 2 million acres, including land enrolled under both general and continuous signup rules, are held in contracts that expire Sept. 30.
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USDA’s Farm Service Agency said in a press release that CRP enrollment will climb as the agency accepts acreage into the grasslands portion of the program and continues enrolling acres under the year-round, continuous signup, which is targeted to smaller, more environmentally sensitive tracts. The application deadline for grasslands enrollment was May 26.
Some 29 counties will have more than 20% of their land enrolled in CRP under this latest general signup, according to an FSA notice to the agency’s state and county offices. Eight of those counties are in Texas and six are in Colorado.
No more than 25% of the land in a county can be enrolled in CRP at any one time.
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