The Land — With 3.4 million acres of Conservation Reserve Program contracts nationwide expiring in 2009, one logically wants to know: How much of this will be put back into crop production?

U.S. Department of Agriculture data from the Farm Service Agency doesn’t really answer the question, because CRP acreage figures are sort of a floating target. Contracts expire each year but the USDA also offers reenrollment opportunities for much of this land through various other land protection programs.

“Minnesota reached a high of 1.8 million CRP acres with the 2002 farm bill,” said Greg Anderson, agricultural program specialist at the state FSA office in St. Paul. “Today Minnesota is at 1,622,000 acres enrolled in CRP. But we don’t know what happened to those 200,000 acres. Some could have gone into wetland restoration, additional RIM acres, and filter strips along ditches, creeks and streams. So to suggest that we now have an additional 200,000 acres plowed and planted into corn and soybeans is simply not logical.”

County examples

Touching base with a few county FSA offices backs up Anderson’s opinion. For example, Olmsted County, with considerable rolling terrain and 227,000 acres cropland, currently has 529 CRP contracts involving 8,090.2 acres. County rental rates vary from $104 to $160 per acre. At the most recent CRP expiration date, which was Sept. 30 (end of the fiscal year for the FSA), 27 contracts expired involving 784.0 acres, while 10 contracts re-enrolled involving 274.7 acres for a net loss of 509.3 CRP acres.

“Keep in mind these acres had to meet the highest EBI (Environmental Benefit Index) criteria in order to be re-enrolled for another 10-year contract,” said Tom Lauth, FSA executive director at the Rochester office.

“Back in 2006, there was an opportunity for CRP contract holders to either extend one to five years at the current rental rate or re-enroll for another 10-year contract at the updated rental rates,” he said. “So apparently the 17 contracts that didn’t renew felt the economics were such that they decided to cash rent out the expiring CRP for the 2010 crop year.”

Pipestone County, deep in southwest Minnesota currently has 470 CRP contracts enrolling 8,397.8 acres and with rental rates varying from $48 to $189 per acre. This past Sept. 30, 18 contracts expired involving 472.4 acres, with 179.1 acres re-enrolled, leaving a net loss of CRP acres of 293.3 acres.

USDA data showed 211,637 acres of cropland in Pipestone County in 2007. CRP Program Technician Dave Larson and county Extension director Mark Zinnel noted the following.

• Trends suggest fewer CRP acres enrolled.

• Not all CRP expiring acres are eligible to be re-enrolled because of not meeting EBI criteria.

• Higher grain prices tend to diminish attractiveness of the CRP.

• Cash rent rates are close to doubling the higher CRP rental rate.

• There is a need/greed to farm more land.

• Pipestone County has more livestock, thus more feed requirements.

Martin County, Minnesota’s No. 1 pork production county, has 426,660 cropland acres according to 2007 USDA data and usually ranks second or third in corn and soybean production. It currently has 564 CRP contracts with 7,121.7 acres enrolled. Only eight contracts involving 134 acres expired last Sept. 30. Of these, six contracts re-enrolled with 71.6 acres so there was a net loss of only 62.4 acres. “The type of land enrolled into CRP has changed over the past years,” said Larry Bremer, Martin County executive director at the Fairmont FSA office. “We used to see mostly larger tracts of land enrolled. Many of these are now being cropped. Today we are seeing much smaller, but higher priority, land enrolled such as filter strips, waterways, etc.” Renville County, with nearly 600,000 acres of cropland, has 976 CRP contracts with 14,122.2 acres enrolled. On Sept. 30 only 12 contracts expired involving only 78.7 acres, but 64.1 of these acres were reenrolled so the “net loss” of CRP acres was only 14.6 acres. “Farmers pretty much understand what land best fits CRP, plus we have good ‘rental rates’ for CRP acres in our county which certainly keeps the program financially attractive to land owners,” said Renville County FSA Executive Director Byron Hogberg. Good rates indeed. Because Renville County is well-drained and has highly productive soils for corn, soybeans, sugar beets and canning crops, CRP “rates” vary from $116 per acre to $214 per acre. CRP ‘doing what was intended’ So where were the big chunks of CRP expirations in September? Most were in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. FSA officials predict that many of these acres will be put back into crop production, but that’s not the situation in Minnesota. “The Conservation Reserve Program is doing what was intended,” Anderson said. “Certain lands just aren’t best suited for crops. These fragile, highly sensitive soils do indeed function best when providing an environmental benefit.” There is also a related recreational and economic sideline. Many CRP acres in western Minnesota and South Dakota are once again prime wildlife habitat. Landowners are “cashing in,” with hunting access that pays better rent than corn and soybeans. Most CRP land would not be the easiest to put back into production.