USDA Restarts Continuous CRP Signup; No General Signup on Tap

USDA will resume allowing continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) signups, opening a signup period from June 4 through August 17. Producers with CRP contracts that are maturing September 30 that that have a contract term of 14 years or less will also be able to enroll for a one-year extension during the same signup period. Those with contracts where a one-year extension would take the contract term beyond 15 years are not eligible. Those not eligible for the one-year extension can offer the ground for continuous signup, but USDA cautions that "if enrollment demand is high, some offers may not be accepted because of the 24-million-acre cap."USDA has not allowed continuous signups under CRP so far in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 as it sought to keep CRP acres under the cap of 24 million acres; it did allow signups under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and CRP Grasslands. USDA said that limited priority practices are available for continuous enrollment, including grassed waterways, filter strips, riparian buffers, wetland restoration and others. The limited practice availability and short signup period will help "ensure that landowners with the most sensitive acreage will enroll in the program and avoid unintended competition with new and beginning farmers seeking leases," USDA said in announcing the signup.Current CRP enrollment is about 22.7 million acres. USDA has not published the level of acres in the CRP since September 2017 when there were 23.43 million acres in the program. There were 2.51 million acres scheduled to expire as of September 30 while the FY 2017 continuous signup resulted in 1.185 million acres to be enrolled in the program with contracts to start October 1, 2017. USDA said it would use updated soil rental rates to make annual payments and would not issue any incentive payments.