CRP haying, grazing OK'd; cooler weather expected

As drought conditions continue to worsen across the nation, the U. S. Department of Agriculture has added Hill County to the list of counties where haying and grazing of land in the Conservation Reserve Program will be allowed.

The announcement comes as National Weather Service is again announcing red flag fire warnings across much of the state from noon to midnight today, including in Blaine, Chouteau and Hill counties.

A cropland blaze burned 50 acres between Havre and Kremlin Tuesday night.

The announcement also comes during a forecast of cooler drier weather for this week, with a high of 80 predicted for today and a high of 68 for Friday predicted by Weather Service, as well as a chance of thundershowers tonight and showers Friday and Saturday.

The weather service reports that low humidity and breezy westerly winds will cause dangerous fire conditions ahead of the cold front expected to move through the region later today, passing through north-central Montana late this afternoon and into southwestern Montana early this evening.

The announcement about CRP haying and grazing said Daniels County also had been approved. That leaves Liberty, Lincoln, Mineral, Sanders and Toole as the only counties that are not eligible to date.

Mike Zook, Hill County Farm Service Agency executive director, said this morning that listings of abnormally dry conditions in the county led to the opening of CRP land.

He said adjustments in procedures to allow for drought conditions and the lack of high-quality forage that change reductions in the CRP rent payments from USDA from a 25 percent reduction to a 10 percent reduction on payments for acres hayed or grazed.

Under the abnormally dry conditions provision, Zook said, agricultural producers can come into the Hill County Farm Service Center to apply for haying or grazing on CRP acres that have been hayed or grazed in previous years.

Some restrictions, such as the requirement to leave 50 percent of the field or an adjoining field alone, still apply.

Zook said opening Hill County also gives producers in the southeastern and south-central part of Montana, who have been hit extremely hard by drought and fire, the opportunity to rent or lease CRP haying and grazing from local producers.

Before the announcement that Hill County was opened to haying and grazing on CRP, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that more than half of the counties in the nation had been declared disaster areas.

He also announced that crop insurance companies had agreed to give a 30-day grace period on crop insurance premiums due to the drought conditions across the country.