With the dry weather, there has been a huge push to open emergency grazing and haying of Conservation Reserve Program land. A provision in the Farm Bill allows for this option to help relieve the producers of grazing animals. When we have conditions like this, forage becomes hard to obtain.
Curt Goettsch is the Conservation/Compliance Chief for the Farm Service Agency in Iowa. He talks about the situation in which we are finding ourselves, and what producers need to do to find out if they are eligible to hay or graze their CRP acres.
Twenty-six counties are cleared for unrestricted haying & grazing under the Farm Bill provisions. These counties include Allamakee, Audubon, Benton, Buena Vista, Carroll, Cedar, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Crawford, Decatur, Des Moines, Fremont, Henry, Humboldt, Ida, Jones, Louisa, Marion, Muscatine, Page, Pocahontas, Sac, Shelby, and Washington.
However, there are twenty counties that have restrictions on their haying and grazing options. Those counties include Appanoose, Cass, Davis, Harrison, Jefferson, Keokuk, Lee, Lucas, Lyon, Mahaska, Mills, Monona, Monroe, Montgomery, Plymouth, Pottawattamie, Van Buren, Wapello, Wayne, Woodbury. These counties also qualify for the Livestock Forage Disaster Program. Goettsch explains what that means for those residents.
Acres can only be hayed or grazed, not both. If you have any questions, contact your local Farm Service Agency county office.
