10/11/05  Wash. less competitive under CRP plan

10/11/05 Wash. less competitive under CRP plan

Washington Ag October 11, 2005 Assuming Washington landowners and farmers with Conservation Reserve Program contracts want to re-enroll their contracts that expire between 2007 and 2010, they could be at a disadvantage in the competition with other regions under the plan recently announced by the USDA. A national percentile ranking of expiring contracts' Environmental Benefits Index scores will determine the length of the re-enrollment period allowed, but Rod Hamilton of the Washington State Farm Service Agency office, says not being counted this time is the cost factor. Hamilton: "Essentially the lower cost to the government for enrolling that land, in other words the lower the rental rate the more points folks got. You typically saw lower rental rates out in the West because of lower rental values out in the West compared to the Midwest and Southeast. Those folks had higher rental rates, higher costs, thus they got a lower score in that cost factor. Now since that is eliminated where we had a bit of an advantage out West our comparative scores will probably drop a little bit compared to those Midwestern scores. 31 Contracts in a national priority area also receive an additional 25 points and contracts in Washington are not in a national priority area. I'm Bob Hoff.
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