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Cattlemen warn CRP expansion could reduce feed availability, opportunities for young producers

The president of the Nebraska Cattlemen says expanding the Conservation Reserve Program doesn’t guarantee increased grazing access long-term.

Craig Uden says the solution isn’t adding more acres for the sake of adding acres.“If this was a successful program to where we could have fencing and water development where we could work back and forth between farmers, the CRP and the livestock, then we’d look at it.”

He tells Brownfield he’s cornered about feed availability. “We don’t want to put so many acres into a CRP program, and it lays there idle, then we get into more drought and be short of feed product.”  

Uden says it could also impact the next generation. “If we expand those acres, we’re taking away an opportunity for young people to get involved just for the dollars. We need to bring young people back. We need to encourage them to keep moving forward.”

He says he’d like to see partnerships between farmers and producers like they’ve done in his western-Nebraska county. “We look at cover crops, CRP lands and working back and forth between the sectors of agriculture. That’s the step that needs to be looked at.”  

A group of U.S. Senators, led by Roger Marshall of Kansas, recently sent a letter to USDA and the Department of Interior asking the agencies to continue expanding grazing access and strengthen risk management tools. The letter asks for the finalization of the BLM grazing rule and re-evaluation of other programs like the Wild Horse and Burro Program, the Endangered Species Act and CRP. The letter was co-signed by Pete Ricketts (R-NE), and Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst (R-IA).