Dateline: July 15, 2004

FSA approves managed grazing, haying of CRP

Cutting hay and grazing livestock on land enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program, in the absence of a weather-related emergency, is now an option for Texas producers.

Bruce Ferguson, County Executive Director for the Donley County Farm Service Agency, announced today that managed haying and grazing is allowed on CRP lands.  Haying is approved in Texas July 2 through September 29, and grazing is approved beginning July 2 and ending October 29, 2004. The starting date for both haying and grazing is tied to the end of the primary nesting and brood rearing season in the state.  Prior to the 2002 Farm Bill, commercial use of CRP land was generally prohibited except for weather-related emergencies such as droughts.

To take advantage of the haying and grazing options, producers must modify existing conservation plans for the CRP acreage to include managed haying and grazing practices. The plans must be developed in conjunction with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) or one of its technical service providers.

Producers must also agree to certain terms and conditions, including signing an agreement to re-establish, at the producer’s own cost, any cover destroyed or damaged as a result of haying or grazing and to remove all hay within 10 days of being notified that the managed haying and grazing season has ended.

Ferguson emphasized that for acreage that is hayed or grazed, annual rental payments producers receive for enrolling land into CRP will be reduced by 25 percent.

Under this enhanced CRP provision, producers can cut hay or graze livestock on a given acre no more than once every three years after the vegetative cover is fully established. An area hayed or grazed this year, for example, may not be hayed or grazed again until 2007. CRP participants can choose to hay or graze their entire CRP acreage in the first year, or only a portion of their CRP acreage each year. Producers may not harvest hay and graze livestock on the same land in the same year. 

“The managed haying and grazing option provides producers latitude when making land management decisions regarding their operations. The periodic disturbance of vegetative cover under managed haying and grazing will increase the diversity and quality of the cover and improve wildlife benefits,” said Ferguson

For additional eligibility criteria and information regarding CRP Managed Haying and Grazing, contact the Donley County FSA office at 806-874-3561 or visit the USDA Web site at http://www.fsa.usda.gov.