Limited harvesting of hay on Conservation Reserve Program acres will now be allowed in most of Iowa’s counties, following an announcement Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Conservation Reserve Program (Photo: usgs.gov)

Conservation Reserve Program (Photo: usgs.gov)

According to a press release from Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the USDA will release CRP acres for haying in counties that have received a presidential disaster declaration and contiguous counties because of the recent flooding. This release includes almost all of the state of Iowa.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer issued a release for livestock grazing on CRP acres for these same counties on July 7.

Harvesting of hay on CRP lands under the emergency release comes with several stipulations. CRP participants will receive a 25 percent payment reduction and harvesting will be limited to one cutting of hay. Additionally, one half of the field or contiguous fields in CRP must be left unharvested for the protection of wildlife, and all haying must cease on Sept. 30. Participants must write their county Farm Service Agency office and receive a modified conservation plan and approval before beginning to harvest hay.

Harkin had submitted numerous requests for the emergency CRP release for haying, and just this week he was joined by all of the members of Iowa’s congressional delegation in calling for the release.

“The disaster caused by this summer’s flooding has forced us to look at new ways to allow Iowa producers to provide for livestock,” said Harkin in the press release. “It was critical for USDA to release CRP lands for grazing. Yet it is important for producers in Iowa — many of whom no longer have fencing or livestock watering facilities on their CRP land — to be able to use CRP hay to feed their livestock or to market it. Emergency haying and grazing is permitted on lands affected by drought, and with the nesting season over, it only made sense to open this land for haying.”

The primary nesting season for wild birds in Iowa was determined by the USDA to be completed by Aug. 2 this year.

The emergency release of CRP acres for haying and grazing will only affect designated counties in 16 states. And while it will be welcome news to many livestock producers who have been struggling this year with the high cost of feed, a broader nationwide release of CRP land was what many really had hoped for.

That nationwide CRP release, under the Critical Feed Use program, was mostly derailed when a Seattle court found in favor of the National Wildlife Federation in a lawsuit two weeks ago.

Iowa’s other senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, said Tuesday in a conference call with agriculture reporters that he wants to change the law to override the court ruling on the CRP Critical Feed Use program.

Grassley announced that he is co-sponsoring a bill with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., that will “implement the Critical Feed Use program and do it as originally intended by the USDA.”

Grassley said that the court stepped in and ruled in such a way to “dilute the value of the critical feed program,” adding that the lawsuit came at a very bad time for farmers. “The court issued an arbitrary ruling, which, well, just simply and essentially cut off many farmers who wanted to participate,” said Grassley.

Grassley said that the court, in fact, may be accurately interpreting the law, but if that is the case, “then we need to rewrite the law.” He said that the arbitrary ruling of the court resulted in farmers being treated inequitably, because some farmers who had applied before the deadline would be allowed to participate, while others who had missed the deadline would not be allowed to participate.