[Pollinator] USDA allows haying on conservation acres in disaster zones

[Ladadams at aol.com]

(Embedded image moved to file: pic04046.gif)E&ENews PM     
An E&E Publishing Service 
AGRICULTURE: USDA  allows haying on conservation acres in disaster  
zones   (Wednesday, August 6, 2008)               
Allison  Winter, E&ENews PM reporter               
Farmers hit  by Midwest floods could be allowed to cut hay on        
thousands of acres set aside under a federal conservation program, 
the  Agriculture Department said today.             
In a bid to  relieve pressure for livestock feed, USDA is allowing  
states and  counties in declared disaster areas to open some         
Conservation Reserve Program tracts for haying. Farmers could cut   
hay on part of their land in exchange for a reduced federal     
payment, as long as they avoid nesting season and keep some  land   
in grasses.                
The  decision to allow haying expands use of conservation acres      
under long-term contracts to provide benefits for soil and water    
conservation and wildlife habitat. Last month, USDA said farmers    
hit by weather disasters could allow grazing on conservation land. 
The  department had held off on allowing haying to protect         
ground-nesting birds, but Iowa lawmakers had pressed USDA on  the   
matter. The state's congressional delegation sent a letter  to      
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schaefer yesterday saying  the limitations 
were unfair to farmers with land that lacked the fencing  or        
watering facilities to make it available for  grazing. USDA had     
already allowed farmers to hay land in  drought-affected areas.     
"For these producers, access to  hay harvest on CRP is the most     
practicable way for their  livestock to benefit from hay on CRP     
acres, or for the  hay to enhance supplies for feed," the letter    
says.     
The scope of today's  decision is still unclear. Senior USDA        
officials  sent a memo to state and county Farm Service Agency       
offices, allowing them to open some CRP land for haying. But each   
qualified county will still have to make the decision whether or    
not to allow farmers to participate. All of the recent       
presidentially declared flood disaster areas are  eligible.         
The move could affect land in 16  states -- most are Midwest        
farming states that  suffered the most from severe weather this     
spring. In  Iowa, which was hit the hardest by floods, more than     
three-fourths of the state's counties were declared disaster     
areas.                   
Iowa has more than 1.8 million acres of CRP land.     
As farmers face rising feed  costs, USDA is increasingly turning to 
the millions of acres enrolled in CRP  to help meet some of their   
needs.           
CRP is a favorite program of conservation  and wildlife groups for  
the millions of acres of habitat it provides.  Ducks Unlimited      
credits CRP for adding 2.2 million ducks  to the fall migration     
each year and conserving more than  450 million tons of topsoil.    
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Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Pollinator  Partnership 
423 Washington Street, 5th floor
San Francisco, CA  94111
415-362-1137
LDA at pollinator.org

_www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 

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National Pollinator Week is June 22-28, 2009. 
Beecome  involved at _www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 



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