The Iowa office of the U.S. Farm Service Agency says some 243-thousand acres of Iowa farmland has been accepted into a popular conservation program. Michael Musel oversees the Conservation Reserve Program or C-R-P for the Iowa F-S-A office. Musel says federal officials accepted 52-percent of the land offered by Iowa farmers in a nationwide bid process.He says it’s a little lower acceptance rate than Iowa’s accustomed to, but he hasn’t been able to analyze why that is. The C-R-P program pays the farmer to take the land out of production. Musel says the state now has to finish the work to get the accepted acres enrolled in the plan. He says the offer given by the landowner is now binding and the county committee must now approve the plan for seeding or planting the land while it’s out of regular crop production. Musel says the land must be help out of regular production for at least a decade. He says some of the contracts are for 15 years, but most are for 10 years and pay the farmer the agreed contract price for the 10 years. Musel says the Iowa acres are part of just over 39-million acres approved for the C-R-P program by federal officials.
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