It may have been a while since many of you have had a vocabulary assignment but when it comes to making the best decisions for yourself, it is probably best you have all of the information and are able to understand it. So, when we use CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) as a catch all term it is really inaccurate. There are three main categories that fall under the term CRP and each having practices contained within their scope of influence. Practices are a specific group of guidelines we can choose from to enroll land into the CRP program. Some have extra incentives (i.e. money) that go with them, or extra cost share. Prepare yourself for an acronym bonanza. Just bear with me.
General CRP. This is the original, the OG. In it’s time General CRP was groundbreaking and is what helped shape conservation for decades. We largely don’t use this anymore in South Dakota and there has been a shift of acres from this into Continuous CRP. It now has less acres nationwide than Continuous and that should continue downward on its own but also those who influence that part of the farm bill are looking to expediate that switch to Continuous CRP even faster. Just like any original product there are usually some things that can be improved upon once we get to using it. Some of the misgivings of General CRP is that there is a sign-up period and a ranking process. Sign-up periods put stress on everyone, the landowner, FSA Staff; all for an offer that may not be accepted. National FSA sets a points threshold without county staff knowing what that threshold is. If you’re application doesn’t meet the threshold, better luck next year. Also, General CRP allows for very limited diversity grass plantings. Not that Continuous is the end all be all in this, but it is at least a little better. You can get more points on your application by agreeing to a diverse seed plan, but this is seldom used and honestly almost never had the management done on them to be successful. (You have to use a mower not a sprayer). The most common practices under General are CP 2-D or CP-D. Main difference is one allows introduced species and the other does not. I bet you can guess the one used more often.
Continuous CRP. Continuous does not require a sign-up period or a ranking process. If it meets practice guidelines it can be enrolled. We can almost exclusively use this in South Dakota with the edition of the CP 38 or SAFE practice. Most of the Continuous practices we use here are wetland buffers. SAFE allows us to enroll land into continuous without the wetland buffers, it just needs to meet practices standards of at least 20 acres and 600 ft. wide. This is a wildlife practice. The reason we still look at the wetland practices first are the monetary incentives which is 20% of the soil rental rate. Our most common wetland practices are a CP 23A and a CP 37. Wetland practices allow for a wetland, upland acre ratio. You are allowed so many upland acres for every wetland acre buffered. The difference here between the 23A and the 37 is that the 23A is a 4:1 ratio (for every 1 acre of wetland we can enroll 4 acres of upland) and the 37 is a 10:1 ratio (I think you get it). There is a straight CP 23 which is a floodplain practice that is a 3:1 ratio but we don’t have a lot of flood plain areas to use this. Mostly the Jim River. The CP 37 does have certain seeding requirements (at least 60% cool season grasses and forbs) but still not real stringent. There are many practices under Continuous that will take too much print to go over all of them, but I will highlight a few more.
CP 43 or Prairie strips is one of the newest practices. This is largely a field border practices and is only allowed to be up to 120ft wide, but it does require a more diverse seed mix. It does allow for similar incentives to the wetland practices without of course having to be tied to wetlands. I think these would be great snow breaks for roads that get snow blown easily. Not to mention the wildlife benefit. Other Continuous practices include CP 21 filter strips, CP 22 for riparian areas, CP 29 and 30 which are for marginal pasture. All are buffer practices to buffer river, streams, lakes, etc. The last 3 are a little different here as they do not have to be cropland.
The last real player in the continuous practice game is the CP 27 – 28 or FWP. This is similar to the CP23 A except the cropping history. If you don’t know cropland CRP requires cropping history in certain years for most other practices, since we are still under the 2018 farm bill, it is the years of 2012-2017 or the 6 years previous to the farm bills enaction. You must have a record of cropping the enrolled acres 4 out of those 6 years. Where the FWP is different is that it allows for cropping of those acres just 3 out of the previous 10 years. However, you must have eligible wetlands to buffer.
Grassland CRP. So, I fibbed when I made it sound like there are multiple practices under each type of CRP. Grassland only has one, CP 88. I have made a fuss as of late over Grassland CRP acres being counted in with the cropland CRP acres, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it or that it isn’t a good program for you. This enrolls traditional pasture and hay lands into CRP in return for the landowner or producer committing to certain practices in order to increase diversity at least on the pasture. Hayland we are protecting nesting season by not allowing it until August 1st. You can also leave it idle and can interchange between those 3 land uses as you wish.
Alright I have overstayed my welcome again. Next week more information for those with CRP up for reenrollment and those looking for new acres if we get some direction.