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01.10.20 Agriculture Policy, Newsletter

USDA releases CRP rental rates, grants higher rates to 121 counties

By Max Fisher, Vice President of Economics and Government Relations

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released the 2020 county average cash rental rates for non-irrigated cropland that will serve as the starting point for calculating rental rate offers for this year’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) signups. The current CRP general signup is open until Feb. 28 and a CRP continuous signup is open and will be ongoing.

Importantly, the 2018 farm law for the first time imposed statutory limits on rental rates, as advocated by NGFA. For the current CRP general signup, the CRP rental rate limit is 85 percent of the 2020 county average cash rental rate for non-irrigated cropland.  Meanwhile, CRP continuous enrollment rental rates mandated under the farm law are to be adjusted to 90 percent. The limits are before adjustments for soil productivity.

However, the 2018 farm law also included a provision that enables state Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices and CRP Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program partners to propose alternative CRP rental rates to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service’s (NASS) county average cash rental rates for non-irrigated cropland, which, in the absence of the statutory caps, otherwise would serve as the basis for FSA’s CRP rental rates.

For the 2020 CRP signups, USDA awarded higher rental rates to 121 counties and lower rental rates were provided to only six counties, exhibiting bias toward higher rental rates by FSA.

The following state FSA offices petitioned and were granted higher rental rates than the statistically-based rates calculated by NASS: Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota. Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

State FSA offices for Iowa, Pennsylvania and South Carolina petitioned and were provided granted lower rental rates. 

CRP currently has 22 million acres enrolled, with contracts totaling 4.5 million acres set to expire on Sept. 30, 2020. USDA estimates that approximately 7 million acres are available for enrollment under the upcoming signup. The contract period for new enrollments will begin on Oct. 1, 2020.

The 2018 farm law increased the CRP acreage limit from 24 million acres to 24.5 million acres in 2020, 25 million acres in 2021, 25.5 million acres in 2022 and 27 million acres in 2023.

Despite the biased upward adjustment to CRP rental rates for 121 counties, NGFA is appreciative of Congress’s intent to limit CRP rental rates to better target CRP to marginal land and enable more productive land to serve American agriculture’s ability to compete in domestic and international markets. By reducing CRP rental rates overall, CRP enrollments will be more focused on less productive land. This policy change will benefit young and beginning farmers and ranchers, who for too long have been forced to bid directly against the federal government to access land.

Below are the counties that were granted different 2020 county average non-irrigated cash rental rates to use as the starting point for calculating per-acre rental rate offers for this year’s CRP signups:

 

STATE COUNTY 2020 County Average Non-Irrigated Cash Rental Rate Used for CRP Offers 2020 NASS County Average Non–Irrigated Cash Rental Rate Plus-up or Decrease from NASS Rate
Arkansas Lincoln $53 $23 $30
Arkansas Faulkner $51 $31 $20
Arkansas Monroe $80 $61 $19
Arkansas Lawrence $61 $43 $19
Arkansas Pope $43 $27 $17
Arkansas Jackson $63 $50 $14
Arkansas Lonoke $43 $30 $13
Arkansas Randolph $33 $21 $12
Arkansas Conway $37 $26 $12
Arkansas Pulaski $40 $29 $11
Arkansas Phillips $87 $77 $10
Arkansas Independence $37 $28 $9
Arkansas Miller $23 $15 $9
Arkansas Yell $28 $21 $8
Arkansas White $26 $19 $7
Arkansas Perry $20 $15 $5
Arkansas Drew $19 $15 $4
Idaho Oneida $31 $27 $4
Idaho Power $31 $27 $4
Idaho Bannock $21 $18 $4
Illinois Johnson $75 $57 $18
Indiana Pike $180 $155 $25
Indiana Martin $170 $156 $14
Indiana Harrison $108 $100 $9
Iowa Mahaska $218 $233 ($15)
Iowa Scott $256 $277 ($21)
Kansas Johnson $65 $46 $20
Kansas Graham $39 $36 $3
Kansas Ness $37 $34 $3
Kansas Trego $38 $35 $3
Kentucky Knott $64 $40 $24
Kentucky Marshall $106 $85 $21
Kentucky Clinton $74 $60 $14
Kentucky Grayson $105 $103 $2
Minnesota Lincoln $186 $169 $17
Mississippi Quitman $109 $97 $12
Mississippi Stone $45 $34 $12
Mississippi Attala $61 $53 $9
Mississippi Greene $34 $26 $9
Mississippi Pearl River $19 $15 $4
Mississippi Clarke $15 $13 $2
Mississippi Walthall $26 $24 $2
Missouri DeKalb $136 $119 $17
Missouri Linn $134 $117 $17
Missouri Sullivan $102 $86 $16
Missouri Grundy $140 $125 $15
Missouri Holt $180 $165 $15
Missouri Johnson $78 $75 $4
Nebraska Sheridan $31 $24 $8
Nebraska Frontier $60 $56 $4
Nebraska Red Willow $61 $59 $2
New York Delaware $27 $24 $3
North Dakota Dunn $30 $27 $3
Ohio Ashland $125 $111 $14
Pennsylvania McKean $39 $21 $18
Pennsylvania Jefferson $32 $21 $11
Pennsylvania Clearfield $32 $22 $10
Pennsylvania Potter $39 $30 $9
Pennsylvania Northumberland $84 $104 ($20)
Pennsylvania Montour $56 $88 ($32)
South Carolina Georgetown $39 $28 $11
South Carolina Greenville $28 $17 $11
South Carolina Greenwood $17 $37 ($20)
South Carolina Hampton $37 $70 ($33)
South Dakota Bennett $37 $29 $8
South Dakota Oglala Lakota $25 $21 $4
South Dakota Perkins $29 $25 $4
South Dakota Miner $126 $124 $2
Tennessee Washington $77 $54 $23
Tennessee Meigs $66 $50 $16
Tennessee Loudon $56 $42 $14
Tennessee Hamilton $46 $33 $14
Tennessee Union $43 $31 $12
Tennessee Benton $93 $82 $11
Tennessee Rhea $42 $31 $11
Tennessee Grainger $41 $31 $10
Tennessee Henry $113 $103 $10
Tennessee Hancock $29 $20 $9
Tennessee McMinn $55 $46 $9
Tennessee Polk $48 $39 $9
Tennessee Blount $42 $34 $8
Tennessee Hawkins $33 $26 $7
Tennessee Knox $37 $30 $7
Tennessee Claiborne $29 $24 $5
Tennessee Monroe $70 $65 $5
Tennessee Johnson $29 $27 $2
Texas Martin $33 $18 $16
Texas Donley $24 $13 $12
Texas Cochran $37 $29 $8
Texas Parmer $35 $28 $8
Texas Swisher $33 $27 $7
Texas Deaf Smith $34 $29 $6
Texas Collingsworth $20 $16 $4
Texas Briscoe $22 $19 $3
Texas Childress $22 $19 $3
Texas Hockley $43 $40 $3
Texas Mitchell $23 $21 $3
Texas Dawson $29 $28 $2
Vermont Orange $68 $47 $22
Vermont Caledonia $47 $29 $18
Vermont Franklin $93 $75 $18
Vermont Chittenden $53 $41 $13
Vermont Orleans $53 $42 $11
Vermont Rutland $39 $29 $11
Vermont Washington $50 $43 $7
Vermont Addison $44 $41 $4
Washington Asotin $53 $21 $33
Washington Walla Walla $63 $47 $17
Washington Columbia $62 $50 $12
Washington Lincoln $52 $42 $10
Washington Lewis $64 $55 $9
Washington Okanogan $44 $35 $9
Washington Franklin $53 $46 $8
Washington Garfield $60 $59 $2
Wisconsin Door $134 $84 $50
Wisconsin Buffalo $126 $114 $12

 

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Lacy Holleman
Manager of Legal Affairs and Arbitration

lholleman@ngfa.org

Lacy provides staff support for one of NGFA’s premier member services – its more than century old system of industry trade rules and arbitration that facilitates the efficient marketing of grains, oilseeds and their derived products. She also works on contracting, legal and other related matters.

An Arkansas native, Lacy received her undergraduate degree with a double major in history and Russian studies from the University of Tulsa (Okla.) and her law degree from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Prior to joining NGFA’s staff in November 2020, she managed a local business at the Pentagon and completed mediation training required by the North Carolina Supreme Court for those seeking to serve as mediators for settlement conferences and other settlement procedures in North Carolina Superior Court civil actions. She also has worked as an assistant for a law firm in her native state.