The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that approximately 770,000 acres of grasslands on the Northern Great Plains were converted to cropland between 1997 and 2007. ?USDA further estimated that, for the same region and period, approximately 100,000 acres were converted from croplands to grasslands, mostly through the Conservation Reserve Program, for a net loss of 670,000 acres of grassland habitat.

These estimates were included in a recent USDA Economic Research Service report: "Grassland to Cropland Conversion in the Northern Great Plains?The Role of Crop Insurance, Disaster and Commodity Programs." The report noted that producers on the Northern Great Plains were more likely to convert grasslands to cropland and retain their land in crops than were producers in other regions of the country. ?Based on their models, the authors concluded that the federal crop insurance, marketing-loan and disaster-payment programs they evaluated increased cropland acreage in the region by nearly 3 percent during the 10-year period. They also noted that high commodity prices for crops might be far more important than these programs in terms of loss of grasslands on the Northern Great Plains. Their study period concluded in 2007, which was prior to the most recent rise in prices currently at or near record levels for many crops.

The report authors also considered the impact of the Sodsaver provision of the 2008 Farm Bill if it would have been implemented. ?In that legislation, Congress stipulated that Sodsaver could be put into effect in the prairie pothole states of Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Minnesota if the governors of any of those states requested it. To date, none has done so. ?If implemented, the Sodsaver provision would deny federal crop insurance coverage for the first five years of crop production on land con?verted from native grass. The report concluded that, within "the context of strong markets and technical innovation?the temporary loss of crop insurance could slow native grassland conversion but is unlikely to stop it."

The take-home message in the report is that stronger provisions, similar to Swampbuster, probably will likely need to be in place to contain the loss of native prairie and other grasslands. Swampbuster was part of the 1985 Farm Bill and denies all farm program payments to producers who drain wetlands on any part of their farm for crop production.(pmr)

Download the entire report.