Kansas Farm Service Agency hopes for approval of emergency CRP grazing

Kansas Farm Service Agency officials are preparing to submit a request to USDA for approval of emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program acres during the designated nesting season, which runs April 15 to July 15 in Kansas.

In late March, FSA announced emergency haying and grazing of CRP acres was available in 28 Kansas counties, but informed participants they would not be allowed to utilize these CRP lands after April 15 and before July 15. About 4,740 acres on 76 contracts were grazed prior to the April 15 deadline.

The Kansas CRP Subcommittee of the State Technical Committee, which includes ag organizations, conservation and wildlife groups and state wildlife officials, met by conference call last week and endorsed the Kansas FSA plan to urge USDA officials to open CRP acres for emergency grazing prior to July 15 and as early as possible. This request is for authority to graze CRP in counties that have been in the D4 (extreme drought) category on the U.S. Drought Monitor map anytime during 2018 and counties contiguous to those counties. In addition, Kansas FSA is requesting approval of early CRP grazing in Ellis, Rice and Stanton Counties because of the impact of significant wildfires in March. CRP parcels enrolled as CP 25, declining habitat, will not be included in the request for early release and emergency use of CRP lands.

KLA sent a letter to Kansas FSA officials last week supporting the request.