CRP Contract Maturities to Be Around 2.51 Million Acres

September 30 marks the end of Fiscal 2017 and the date Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts mature. USDA's data as of July indicated 2.51 million acres will mature September 30, including 1.97 million acres enrolled via a general signup and 540,000 acres that were enrolled via the continuous CRP signup. Program enrollment at the end of July (latest USDA data available) indicated 23.47 million acres are in the CRP, just below the 24 million acre cap imposed under the 2014 Farm Bill.There are seven states with 100,000 or more acres of CRP contracts maturing September 30, including three with 200,000 or more – Montana (390,690 acres), North Dakota (327,426 acres) and Iowa (214,613 acres). Around 800,000 acres of grassland signup were approved for contracts that start October 1 and there were around 919,000 continuous signup acres approved for acceptance but not yet approved in Fiscal 2017.