Wisconsin Ag Connection - NRCS: About 500 Farmers Enroll in CSP During 2012

Wisconsin Ag News Headlines

NRCS: About 500 Farmers Enroll in CSP During 2012
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 01/25/2013

The USDA's voluntary program that offers payments to producers who exercise good land stewardship has been growing at a healthy rate. According to the Wisconsin office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, nearly 500 farmers and forest landowners in the state enrolled in the Conservation Stewardship Program in 2012. This is the third year that this program has been open throughout Wisconsin.

CSP is available to all producers regardless of operation type, crops produced, or geographic location. The NRCS says 476 farmers and forestland owners enrolled in CSP in 2012, with an average payment of $6,416 per contract. Over $3 million in payments made to those farm families this year, and over $15 million over the course of the five-year contracts.

The agency says that for many farmers, CSP offers reward and recognition for the conservation they are already doing, plus a little extra incentive to try a few more or new practices. Total crop and pasture land acres enrolled in Wisconsin to date is 668,683, plus 94,383 acres of woodland (non-industrial private forestland) in 1,978 contracts.

For this signup, average payments in Wisconsin were $20 per acre for cropland, $14 per acre for pasture, and $3.70 per acre for woodland. Payments are made annually for each of the five years of the contract.

CSP, which was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, is open to small and large operations, with farms already enrolled ranging from just a couple of acres to over 3,000 acres of cropland.

Send this article to a friend

Other Wisconsin Headlines