OUTSIDE CORNER: GOVERNMENT BEEFS UP BUFFER PAYMENTS

As part of a new initiative by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), $350 million in new incentives is now available to farmers and landowners to install conservation buffers along streams.

These new financial incentives include signing bonuses and more money for installing and maintaining conservation practices. The incentives are enhancements in the USDA's new sign-up period 22 for the continuous sign-up of the Conservation Reserve Program.

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is helping landowners enhance and maintain buffer strips along streams by providing cost-share assistance and annual rental payments for landowners willing to retire these narrow areas from cropland production or establish trees on qualifying pasture land.

The new incentive pays an up-front signing bonus of $10 per acre for every full year the contract covers, which was never available. These contracts are for 10 or 15 years which means the landowner is eligible for $100 to $150 per acre at the start of the contract to help defray up-front installation costs for these buffer strips.

The rental payment for cropland is based on the productivity of the soil and average cash rental rate for comparable land in the county. Pastureland has a set base rental payment which has just been established in each county.

Pastureland rental rates in Southeast Missouri range from $66 an acre in Cape Girardeau County to $40 in Iron County.

Because conservation buffers have a high environmental benefit an additional 20 percent is added to the rental rate as an incentive. A maintenance incentive of $5 to $10 per acre is also added to the rental payment to help offset the maintenance of the buffer through the life of the practice. For example, a landowner in Cape Girardeau County that has land along a stream in pasture has a potential to make up to $89.20 per acre per year for 15 years if they enroll into the program.

The CRP program will also pay up to 90 percent of the cost for site preparation, temporary cover until permanent cover is established, grading or shaping, seeds, trees or shrubs, plastic mulch and fencing. Additional cost share is available to provide an alternative watering source for livestock if the watering source was a stream. This is up 40 percent from what was available in the past.

The amount of land that can be enrolled has also been increased from a maximum of 150 feet to 180 feet from the top of the streambank. Any land along a stream that is in crops or pastureland is eligible for CRP.

Currently, over 2,000 Missouri landowners have entered more than 23,000 acres into the program. To help landowners understand the CRP program and how it can benefit them, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Services Agency, and the Missouri Department of Conservation will sponsor several informational meeting around the region in June and July.

The following is a list of scheduled meetings: Cape Girardeau County June 20, 2000, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Missouri Department of Conservation Office in Cape Girardeau Bollinger County June 21, 2000, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

USDA office in Marble Hill Perry County June 28, 2000, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

University Extension office in Perryville Ste. Genevieve County July 11, 2000, 6:30 8:30 p.m.

University Extension office in Ste. Genevieve Meetings are also planned for Madison and Wayne Counties in July but dates have not been finalized at this time.

For more information on the Conservation Reserve Program or the informational meetings contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, or the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Brad Pobst is an aquatic services biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.