New Plantings in CRP Not Feasible, According to USDA

USDA’s Perspective Plantings report came out last week, with wheat acres up 1% from 2021 at 47.4 million.

Food and fertilizer availability acted as mortar in a “decent wall” in the USDA’s construction of the perspective planting report due to global trade constraints and the war in Ukraine, according to AgriTalk Host Chip Flory.

Focusing on the global food shortage, many have suggested putting CRP acres back into production—particularly for wheat, as Ukraine produced 6.7 million hectares of winter wheat last fall alone, and SovEcon predicts that number to be cut by half this year.

Last week, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack submitted a letter to Mike Seyfert, president and CEO of National Grain and Feed Association to explain that quickly converting CRP into crop production is “clearly unfeasible.”

“A considerable proportion of currently enrolled CRP acres are in areas experiencing significant levels of drought. Production on those acres would be marginal at best, and there is no realistic way to convert all CRP acres into cropland in 2022,” he wrote. “Even under non-drought scenarios, we know from historic data that acres coming out of CRP have significant ‘slippage,’ meaning that one acre coming out of CRP does not transfer into an acre of crop production, but closer to half that.”

Vilsack says are no “short-term gains” in opening the program to crop production.

“It is critical to point out that if we allow the tillage of CRP acres, the marginal at best benefit to crop protection will be coupled with a significant and detrimental impact on producers’ efforts to mitigate climate change and maintain the long-term health of their land,” he wrote.

Nearly 4 million acres of CRP expire this year. While the FSA field offices finish processing the General CRP offers, ProFarmer policy analyst Jim Wiesemeyer says Vilsack did offer one caveat in his letter:

“Vilsack said he doesn’t think they’re going to get the 4 million acres outlined in the Perspective Plantings report by way of the new CRP enrollment,” he says. “Depending on where the farmer’s attitude was when they filled out the perspective planting survey, we could get some additional acres in wheat, corn or soybeans resulting from high prices for this year’s crop.” 

In 2020, USDA’S National Resources Inventory released data showing only 1.3% of prime farmland is enrolled in CRP while the prime farmland acreage in CRP has been decreasing since 1992.

More on 2022 growing season:

> 2022 Planted Acres: Corn Down 4%, Soybeans Up 4%

> Drought Robs Colorado Farmer's Wheat, Now it May Be Too Dry to Plant Corn This Spring