Gorman excited about options in new CSP program

Agri News

Thursday, August 20, 2009
http://webstar.agrinews.com/agrinews/324800269215796.bsp

Gorman excited about options in new CSP program

By Janet Kubat Willette
Agri News staff writer

GOODHUE, Minn. -- Bill Gorman is glad to finally be able to apply for the CSP.

Gorman, a Goodhue dairy farmer, has been hoping to enroll in the program since it first came out in the 2002 farm bill.

But the Conservation Security Program was never offered in his watershed. The program was only offered in selected watersheds nationwide and only 20 million total acres were enrolled.

Plans for the newly minted Conservation Stewardship Program are much larger. The program will have continuous signup with periodic cutoffs for rankings by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The first cutoff for rankings is Sept. 30. Producers can visit their NRCS office through that date to enroll for this fiscal year. Payments will be issued in October 2010 to those who get a contract during this enrollment period.

The goal is to enroll 12.7 million acres nationwide each fiscal year, said Dave Copeland, district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Olmsted County.

Congress has provided $12 billion in funding over the next 10 years, according to a Conservation Stewardship Program fact sheet compiled by the Land Stewardship Project.

The two programs are alike in that they both reward conservation on working lands and have the same acronym, but the similarities end there.

The old program had a tiered system; the new program has one level. The old program had an application booklet; the new application is several pages. The payments were higher under the old program and the old program also provided additional funding for conservation improvements, Copeland said.

Conservation Stewardship Program payments are expected to average $18 per acre nationwide, including administrative costs, Copeland said. No federal funding may be used to fund additional conservation activities.

Still, Gorman plans to get into the NRCS office to begin the application process as soon as he can.

"It's a good thing for anybody to go in and check out," he said.

Gorman attended an informational meeting last week. He likes the fact that the program doesn't take land out of production and it rewards farmers for the conservation activities they are already doing on their own.

"I think it's good for conservation and community," Gorman said.

Gorman uses rotational grazing for his dairy herd and he also has some terraces. There's a laundry list of activities he can add and Gorman is considering wildlife corridors, resource conserving crop rotations and establishing pollinator habitat.

"If you want to find it, you can find it and put it on your farm," Gorman said.

top