Wisconsin Ag Connection - Leavenworth: Wisconsin Farmers Are Good Stewards of the Land

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Leavenworth: Wisconsin Farmers Are Good Stewards of the Land
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 12/28/2007

Wisconsin's State Conservationist says farmers can be very proud of their stewardship of the land as she looks back at the final year of the previous Farm Bill. Pat Leavenworth of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service has released a summary of conservation accomplishments in Wisconsin for 2007. Highlights in the NRCS report include results of Farm Bill conservation programs and their uses in Wisconsin.

"This year marked the end of an amazing journey called the 2002 Farm Bill," Leavenworth said. "Over the course of the Farm Bill from 2002 through 2007, Wisconsin farmers signed up for 7,623 contracts for farmland conservation work in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, plus 648 working farms enrolled in the Conservation Security Program, which now has 200,000 acres in the state."

Among some of the highlights from 2007 include $26 million being dedicated to helping Wisconsin farmers and landowners protect the state's soil and water quality through the NRCS Farm Bill conservation programs. Another 1,100 new contracts for conservation projects on working farmland were funded through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. And over one-third of the funds were dedicated to helping livestock and dairy farms to improve manure management, one of the most critical issues in Wisconsin agriculture.

Also, since the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program was established in 1996, NRCS has helped 11 different farmland programs purchase easements to protect prime farmland from development. The easements guarantee that over 11,500 acres on 78 working farms in 11 counties will remain in agriculture.

Other highlights of 2007 accomplishments:

** 552,515 acres of conservation plans written

** 471,016 acres of cropland with conservation applied to improve soil quality

** 504,110 acres of cropland with conservation applied to improve water quality

** Comprehensive Nutrient Management plans: 179 applied

** 3,161 acres of wetlands created, restored or enhanced

The NRCS state report is available on line at the Wisconsin NRCS website at www.wi.nrcs.usda.gov