10/12/05 Acreage cap under CRP re-enrollment

Washington Ag October 12, 2005 The acreage cap of 25 percent of cropland in a county will apply to the Conservation Reserve Program re-enrollments and extensions under the plan the USDA recently announced for CRP contracts expiring between 2007 and 2010. In those counties where the cap has been exceeded due to a waiver, the contracts with the top Environmental Benefits Index scores will be re-enrolled or extended until the 25 percent cap is reached. Rod Hamilton of the state Farm Service Agency office, says that will impact Douglas and Asotin counties in Washington. Hamilton: "That both have just under 33% of the cropland enrolled. Current position is that will be held back to 25%. So those acreages that those counties are over the cap, which is about 7,000 in Asotin county and about 42,000 acres in Douglas county will not be accepted back into the program. So those folks with lower scores will not have the opportunity to get back into the program." CRP contracts expire on just over one million acres in Washington between 2007 and 2010. I'm Bob Hoff.