USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) wants to remind landowners the extended deadline to enroll in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) Grassland Conservation Initiative is this Friday, November 8, 2019. The program is available to producers with base acreage that has been in grass or grasslands over a nine-year period, rather than planted with commodity crops. Eligible producers may have received a letter from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) earlier this year that included information on how to apply through NRCS field offices.
When enrolling in the CSP Grassland Conservation Initiative, you must meet or exceed the stewardship threshold for one priority resource concern by the end of their five-year contract. Producers receive $18 per acre per year for the next five years. This initiative has different rules than the rest of CSP and is administered separately. Eligible producers who apply are accepted into the initiative. There is no ranking period, and CSP payment limitations do not apply.
Eligible operations have base acres, which are lands where producers have historically grown commodity crops, where crops have not been grown from January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2017, and the land has returned to grass or grasslands. For more information, contact your local NRCS field office.