Over 800,000 acres were enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) during the most recent general sign-up period. This was the 49^th general enrollment opportunity for the Program and one of the most selective in the 30-year history of CRP, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

CRP was capped at 24 million acres for fiscal years 2017 and 2018 in the 2014 Farm Bill. As of last March, 23.8 million acres were enrolled with contracts on another 1.7 million acres set to expire in September. With farm commodity prices dipping, producer interest in CRP has been ramping up. As a result, this sign-up set a record high cut-off level of the Environmental Benefits Index, which is used to evaluate applications, and a record low level of percentage of applications accepted.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) received over 30,000 offers from producers covering more than 3 million acres to participate in three main categories of CRP. More than 1.8 million acres were offered under general CRP and more than 1 million acres were offered in the new CRP Grasslands program. USDA announced that it will accept 411,000 acres of general CRP and 101,000 acres in the CRP Grasslands Program to go along with the 364,000 acres of continuous CRP that has already been accepted.

The CRP Grasslands Program provides participants with financial assistance for establishing approved grasses, trees and shrubs on pasture and rangeland that can continue to be grazed. Acres for the program are ranked based on current and future use, maximum grassland preservation and enhancement of pollinator habitat, among other things. (pmr)