The skyrocketing popularity of the grasslands option is adding a working lands dimension to the Conservation Reserve, created four decades ago to take fragile cropland out of production. Grasslands now account for 35 percent of the land enrolled in the reserve, up from 28 percent in fiscal 2023, according to USDA data.
Landowners qualify for an annual payment of at least $13 an acre in exchange for maintaining permanent ground cover on grasslands, such as range and pastureland. Producers are allowed to graze livestock and harvest hay from the land.
“I think the bottom line is that it is a working lands program, and that is just more popular in the day and age than a land retirement program,” said farm policy analyst Ferd Hoefner. The grasslands option is available nationwide and may be particularly attractive in the West, he said, “where there are just fewer farm programs or even conservation programs options.”
Working lands programs have lower payment rates — a benefit to the USDA while it pursued full enrollment in the Conservation Reserve. The 24.8 million acres in the reserve is just below the statutory ceiling of 25 million acres. The average annual payment for land in the reserve is $73.61 an acre this fiscal year, for total payments of $1.83 billion.
Only 31 percent of land now in the Conservation Reserve entered through so-called general signups, used to retire large tracts, such as fields, and formerly the core of the program. About 34 percent was enrolled through “continuous” signup, open year-round for high-priority practices, such as windbreaks and riparian buffer strips, on smaller pieces of land. The grasslands option now makes up the other 35 percent.
The grassland option dates from the 2014 farm bill, but enrollments have soared in recent years. Some 8.65 million acres are enrolled this fiscal year, compared to 978,716 acres at this point in 2018. Nebraska, Colorado, and South Dakota are the states with the largest enrollments, a total of 4.65 million acres.
From the CRP’s beginning, enrollment was heaviest in the Plains. The grasslands surge is amplifying that. Nearly half — 47 percent — of Conservation Reserve land is in five Plains states: Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, and Kansas, in that order. Five years ago, the lineup was Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, and Washington, with a combined 43 percent of total enrollment.
To reach the USDA home page for the Conservation Reserve Program, click here.
CRP enrollment data, including monthly summaries, are available here.