The Marion County FSA Office is now accepting Continuous CRP offers, with a few key changes to the process.

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) provides an opportunity for producers and/or landowners to take cropland out of production and enroll it in various conservation practices. Continuous CRP requires cropland with a resource concern to form an acceptable offer. 

The sign up was announced on January 12th and runs through July 31st. Key changes to the Continuous CRP signup this year include producers with expiring contracts can begin the re-enrollment process now, instead of waiting until 6 months from the expiration date and a new batching process which makes start dates for contracts less flexible. Marion County Farm Services Agency Executive Director Zach Andre says that the new process should help keep the program on schedule.

“As long as you get in the batch, we all know on the same day whether or not you can have an accepted offer or not. And our first batch will close on March 15, so then a couple of days later we should hear from our state office whether or not we have acceptable offers or not. And then we should be able to get people started the first of the following month.”

Those interested in the Continuous CRP signup can contact the Marion County FSA Office at 641-842-3168 for more information. Hear more about the program from Zach Andre on today’s In Touch with South Central Iowa.