CRP Acres

It is a growing concern across the nation...the number of CRP acres expiring. Sarah Gustin bre...  More »

It is a growing concern across the nation...the number of CRP acres expiring. Sarah Gustin breaks down the facts and figures of what is happening to the land in our area. Burleigh County was one of the top ten counties in the state with the most CRP acres expiring last year. (Doug Hertz / CRP Expired) Obviously after 21 years, it was just too long really. In reality there was alot more weed pressure out there, some perinnel weeds that are hard to control. Creates a management nightmare. Doug Hertz knows the ins and outs of having land in CRP...having more than 750 acres enrolled in the program. Some acres in for 10 years...others for more than 2 decades. Hertz's CRP contract expired last fall and he says now it is time to put those acres to crop and hay. And it might just be time for a change. (Doug Hertz / CRP Expired) It wasn't a very healthy stand anymore and our local soil conservation district has been educating us on the benefits of soil health, it just wasn't a healthy stand anymore and I think we have some benefits to reap here if we do something different wth it. There are other ways of creatng some of the same benefits in my opinion. Currently there is slightly more than 3 million acres of CRP in North Dakota. About 1.9 million CRP acres are expected to expire in December. But Linda Urlacher with Morton County FSA says while thousands of acres are expiring...many producers are still reenrolling. (Linda Urlacher / Morton Co. FSA) I think some of our producers, have already retired so this is an anuual rental check that is basically, they are looking at towards their retirement. If they were to break it up they would probably have to hire somebody and then of course the adjustments in the rental rates would be up because of the high cost of breaking up land. Urlacher says in Morton County only 14-hundred of the 25-thousand total acres of CRP in the county will be expiring this year. Reporting for KX News, I am Sarah Gustin. Urlacher says most producers are choosing to let their acres expire. And that she has not had any formal requests from farmers to take their land out before their contract expires.  « Less