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IowaBowHunter1983 said:
That's kinds where I was headed.... double check but I don't beleive alfalfa counts as a crop year for CRP eligibility. They consider thst seeded down. My understanding is you need to be running grains to start the clock on crop history for CRP eligibility. Double check.
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So I asked my local FSA office about this specifically about what all counts for farming history and they told me that typically perennial plants such as alfalfa, clover, etc do not count towards farming and crop history, but they assured me that in our local office, they do count it. They said that any annual grain could count, oats, millet, beans, corn, etc. if you can show grain receipts then you have your cropping history.
 
JBAGS said:
Pretty sure it does count but maybe not for 5-7 years of straight alfalfa. I had a farm in Lucas a few years back and had broke out some ground to farm it. Wanted to get crop history going and was going to put some of it back into CRP when eligible. Was HEL ground, and they wanted me to rotate as follows: Beans, beans, corn, alfalfa for 2 years and start the process over again.
Like others have stated, call NRCS to verify. Would like to hear what they tell you on it.
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Talked with the NRCS office as well. they also mentioned that my sodbusting ground will most likely be HEL (highly erodible lands) and that alfalfa would qualify and be a great plant to put on the HEL grounds.
 
Hopefully for your sake they count alfalfa, that would be nice.

From my CRP experience it seems like they keep it all pretty common sense. That varies office to office, county by county. Develop a relationship with your local NRCS guy is the best route, because there definitely can be some nuance with what is and isn't prioritized for CRP.

If you have a HEL top in perennial alfalfa, that's not going to get priority over another guy's top in the same county that's on an open dirt corn/bean rotation and getting washed every rain storm. They're not going to want to pay you for land that is held together perfectly fine in it's current form as a hay field.
 
Cutting and baling alfalfa removes a lot of nutrients from the field. I wouldn't suggest that you plant alfalfa and harvest it a couple of years without adding NPK (as soil tests indicate). You can probably do that, but you would be wearing out the soil.
 
Out FSA office told us alfalfa would count. I also put a hay field in crp no issues. Strangely my farm had two nearly identical size and quality of hay fields. One the previous owner had been reporting each year and one had not been reported. Of course i could not get crp on the non reported field.
 
Iowa must be a lot more open on CRP. Down here in MO only beans corn wheat etc are going to get put into a new CRP contract and it has to have been in so many years out of so many years. No way would hay, alfalfa, clover, etc count as a year for anything towards CRP.
 
Alfalfa counts for CRP now. I believe that changed a few years ago. However, it has to be declared as a crop when you get your form every year to declare as crop history.

Some farmers only list corn & soybeans.
 
bluedog69 said:
Iowa must be a lot more open on CRP. Down here in MO only beans corn wheat etc are going to get put into a new CRP contract and it has to have been in so many years out of so many years. No way would hay, alfalfa, clover, etc count as a year for anything towards CRP.
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Same in my area of IL
 
I do know from talking to some guys down here in MO recently that some of the new contracts allow for 120 days worth of grazing every year. So I wouldn’t doubt that alfalfa would count as a crop now also. Not many run alfalfa much any more compared to 30 years ago. P and K are so expensive compared to back then and alfalfa loves it.
 
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