Vilsack releases CRP acres for haying, grazing

CEDAR RAPIDS - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Monday announced that virtually all farmland enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program has been released for haying and grazing by livestock farmers.

Holding a map showing most of the nation's counties with "abnormally dry" land, Vilsack said livestock farmers are directly affected by a drought that has torched pastures, eliminated third cuttings of alfalfa, and sharply driven up the cost of hay used to feed cattle and calves.

"Livestock producers do not have a crop insurance program," Vilsack said at the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance  in Cedar Rapids. "The disaster programs that provided help to nearly 400,000 producers and nearly $4 billion of assistance in the last three years expired on Sept. 30 of last year.

"There is no disaster program in place for livestock producers."

In addition to opening more CRP acres for haying and grazing, Vilsack said the USDA is authorizing haying and grazing of Wetland Reserve Program easement areas in drought-affected areas where it is consistent with conservation of wildlife habitat and wetlands.

The wetland program provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers to restore and protect valuable wetland resources on their property.

Saying many drought-stricken farmers will have a difficult time paying federal crop insurance premiums, Vilsack is asking insurance providers to voluntarily delay charging interest on unpaid premiums for an extra 30 days until Nov. 1 for spring crops. He said the USDA will not require crop insurers to pay uncollected premiums for that same period of time.

Vilsack said this year's drought is not as bad in most areas of the country as the droughts of 1988, 1954, 1952, 1936 or 1934, but it is more widespread. He said corn and soybean producers are better able to withstand dry, hot weather due to improvements in plant genetics.

Gary Lamb, who farms 4.5 miles south of Chelsea in Tama County, said the heat and lack of rainfall has created some of the worst conditions he's seen in 60 years of livestock and grain farming.

"I rent my pasture out, and I used to run 125 mother cows," Lamb said. "There are three ponds on my 300 acres of pasture. I've had one or two of them dry up some years in August or September. They're all dried up this year, and I'm watering my renter's cattle with the deep well at the barn."

Vilsack said retroactive disaster assistance programs for livestock farmers are included in the U.S. Senate version of the 2012 Farm Bill. He said extending the 2008 Farm Bill would not reinstate those disaster assistance programs.

"The House Agriculture Committee, in a bipartisan vote, passed its version of the bill," Vilsack said. "Sadly, the majority leader in the House (John Boehner, R-Ohio) has indicated that he has put his finger on the 'pause button' as it comes to this particular piece of legislation. And he has indicated that it's not likely to be scheduled for a vote before the August recess.

"There is no more important bill to the rural folks in this country, and probably to the people in this country, than that food, farm and jobs bill. I don't know of any farmer who would take a five-week vacation in the middle of the harvest.

"There's work to be done here, important work that needs to get done."

Vilsack said some livestock producers may start to liquidate their herds in coming weeks, which will lead to a short-term drop in beef prices. Long-term, he said, the cost of beef to consumers will likely increase, but there will not be a sharp increase in overall food prices.

"Right now, we're projecting food price inflation to be somewhere between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent this year," Vilsack said. "We have not altered that assessment as of today, and if we do adjust it, it will likely be a very small amount."