WAWG
From Agri-Pulse
After his state was shorted in recent enrollment of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts, South Dakota Sen. John Thune is suggesting the next farm bill give the program a higher acreage cap and more flexibility.
In a release last week, Thune, a republican who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee, proposed a CRP cap of 30 million acres and expanded haying and grazing on land under a contract. The cap would be a 6 million acre increase from the current 24 million acre limit imposed by the 2014 farm bill.
“CRP is a popular program in South Dakota, but due to expiring contracts, the state is expected to lose 57 percent of its existing CRP acres over the years covered by the 2018 Farm Bill,” Thune said in the release. “After receiving feedback from stakeholders throughout South Dakota, it was clear that we needed to make some changes.” Read the rest of the story here.