Agronomic Conservations to Address Supply Chain Disruptions

Apr 13, 2022

Given current global challenges, lawmakers have proposed allowing select land currently enrolled or soon-to-be enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to be opened for crop production in the immediate future. In 2021, approximately 315,000 U.S. producers received CRP payments, accounting for roughly 22 million acres enrolled in the CRP program or 8.7% of U.S. cropland.

ASA, CSSA, and SSSA members and certified professionals drafted scientific and agronomic considerations that address a potential shift in land use out of conservation and into crop production. We recognize that these are not the only points to be considered and acknowledge the growing global food security challenges brought on by Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.

The following are the key takeaways from the report:

In most cases, converting CRP acres to crop production is resource intensive and may require more time and agronomic inputs than currently available prior to the 2022 growing season. Conversion may be more feasible for the 2022 winter growing season or 2023 spring growing season.
Crop yields tend to be below average the first year after CRP is converted to cropland. Combined with high input prices and low supply, producers may face economic challenges upon converting CRP to cropland at this time even though crop prices are also high.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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