04/13/06 More CRP re-enrollment letters

Washington Ag April 13, 2006 This Friday April 14th is the deadline for landowners with Conservation Reserve Program contracts that expire in 2007 to take the USDA up on its letter offering to re-enroll or extend their contract. Friday is also the deadline for the general CRP sign up that's underway. Rod Hamilton with the Washington State Farm Service Agency office says other letters are just beginning to go out regarding contracts expiring beyond 2007. Hamilton: "For the contracts expiring in 2008 to 2010 we are just starting to get those letter out. Those folks will have until June 30th to report back to the county office that they want to pursue the extension if that is their wish and pay the fee. So they have a deadline a later in the year." Hamilton explains what the holders in Washington of contracts that expire between 2007 and 2010 are being offered. Hamilton: "We have about 52-hundred contracts expiring during that time period in Washington. About a thousand are being offered a new contract. About a thousand a five-year extension. About 15-hundred a four-year extension and then the rest are two and three year extensions." The re-enrollments and extensions are designed to spread out the impact of contracts expiring on huge acres of CRP. I'm Bob Hoff.