ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 1, 2008

JOHNSON ASKS FOR ADDITIONAL EMERGENCY GRAZING ACRES

BISMARCK – Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson has urged the federal government to include CP23 acreage in the opening of Conservation Reserve Program acres (CRP) to grazing in North Dakota.

“The CP23 CRP practice generally yields the best forage value in drought conditions,” Johnson said Tuesday, in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer. “CP23 is also difficult to isolate from other CRP acreage, particularly when fencing CRP for grazing purposes.”

CP23 acreage is land set aside under the CRP program for wetlands restoration.

Johnson thanked Schafer for acting promptly on the recommendation of the North Dakota Agricultural Drought Task Force and State Technical Committee to open CRP to emergency grazing in counties that experienced extreme drought this past spring. Both groups specifically included CP23 acreage in their emergency grazing recommendation request.

“We request that the emergency grazing guidelines be reconsidered and include CP23 CRP acreage in the approved counties,” he said. “I also request that CP23 acreage be included in the critical feed use program, which begins following the primary nesting season.”

The critical feed use program, announced by Schafer on May 27, enables CRP participants with certain established vegetative cover to voluntarily have their CRP contract modified to allow haying or grazing after the end of the primary nesting season. Some of the eligible land must be reserved for wildlife and a conservation plan must be in place for the land. The land is subject to a site inspection to ensure compliance with the conservation plan. There is no rental payment reduction, but a $75 fee is charged to process the required contract modification.

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MEDIA: For more information, please call Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or tquanrud@nd.gov or Patrice Lahlum at (701) 239-7210 or plahlum@nd.gov.