Farmers Sort Through Crp Riddle

Though CRP stands for Conservation Reserve Program, to Eastern Washington land-owners it means a tangled riddle with clues named forb, guzzler and native grasses.

“It’s like playing poker and you don’t know what the hole card is,” said Wes Melcher, an Adams County farmer.

Melcher and several other farmers and landowners spent Thursday at the small USDA office in Ritzville poring over maps of their land, chewing on pencils and, with the help of government workers, deciding their answers to the CRP riddle.

The federal program pays them to idle portions of their acreage to prevent erosion and encourage wildlife. But it’s not that simple.

To participate in the 10-year program, landowners must devise individual plans for planting grasses and brush on the land they decide not to farm, controlling weeds and ensuring that the ground cover meets government regulations. They get points for their land and for their CRP plans. If they have enough points, they win. Maybe.

In the spring sign-up, Washington’s farmers scored the worst in the nation, getting only one acre accepted out of five offered. Landowners in Idaho and Oregon, by contrast, fared much better, with 80 percent approval rates.

Now Washington-based USDA employees are working hard to improve the chances of state farmers in this round.

“In a way, this is a game and we’re trying to make it competitive,” said Kevin Guinn, range management specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

With just two weeks left in the 16th CRP sign-up, every day is a full house at the USDA county offices in the Inland Northwest.

“It sounds like it’s going really well,” said Mike Mandere, spokesman for the Washington State Farm Service Agency. “Scores are coming in higher. Producers seem to be happier.”

But caution continues.

“So what if we have more points if other parts of the country have more points as well?” asked Brent Blankenship.

During the last sign-up Brent and his brother Dan spent three days with the FSA and NRCS workers at the tiny Ritzville offices. After all their work, they were rejected.

This time they’re trying for extra points for being a habitat for endangered species, installing wildlife watering-holes called guzzlers, and agreeing to plant native grasses, shrubs and forbs.

“Figuring out the cost to do this is easy,” said Dan Blankenship. “But I don’t know a forb (a broadleaf plant) from a hole in the ground. I don’t know if I can make them grow.”

Like many of their peers, the Blankenships are agreeing to grow plants they’re not sure will survive in the Adams County climate in hopes they can win USDA approval.

Though Adams County once had the most CRP acres in the country, only four percent of the offers were approved in the last sign-up.

The USDA currently has 27.6 million acres of land enrolled in CRP nationwide. The agency anticipates offers for 10 million more in this sign-up, but has not yet decided how many of those it will accept, said Mandere. The statutory cap for CRP is 36.4 million acres.

Washington farmers are paid an average $39 per acre for CRP land which they have to plant with a ground cover and maintain to government standards.

Already this sign-up is different from the last. Besides earning more points with their offers, landowners waited out the first week before coming filing plans. “Things started kind of slow,” said Mandere. “A lot of growers wanted to wait and see how it went and get the bugs worked out.”

But with the Nov. 14 deadline nearing, Mandere said, “Appointment books are filling up quickly. If they want to sign up, they better at least contact their FSA office now and schedule an appointment if they haven’t already.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo