CRP funding cut??

[TimberPig]

I just recieved a call from a friend of mine who is a contractor and does a lot of work for farmers. He said that he just recieved a letter from the USDA stating that all funding for cost share, establishment, and contract payments on conservation projects have been suspended immediately due to the war budget. This would apparently affect CRP, watershed projects, windbreaks, etc, and I think this applies to any new contracts and projects not yet completed. Does anybody know anymore about this? I could not find anything on the USDA website.

I am in the middle of several projects and it sounds like the USDA is breaking the contract and pulling the $$ they promised. I will be calling the local NRCS office monday A.M. for more info.

Thanks...Timber

 

[mole]

TimberPig,
This is true. May father-in-law has a heavy equipment construction company. He did not receive a letter, he heard at coffee and went to the SCS office.
He was told that all requests for payment must be received by the 28th of March. He found out on Thursday the 27th.
I don't know what the reasoning behind the cuts was, but the amount of time to notify people was very short.

mole

 

[gunrunr]

I just heard them talking about it on WHO. They said to go ahead and turn in your bills but they are already $9 million behind with no funds to pay any more.

 

[TimberPig]

Moleson and others-
I called my local office today and this is partially true. My understanding is that this will only effect any funding that is through the NRCS office on projects funded by the state of Iowa. Examples would be windbreaks, shelterbelts, ponds, etc.

This will not effect projects funded by the U.S. Gov, and will not effect regular CRP, buffer strips, etc, as long as they are not funded by the state.
Apparently this situation is due to the lawsuit over gambling institutions and the taxes they were paying, which apparently was being used to fund conservation projects.

This will not effect any of the projects I currently have going, but it is sad when conservation and the critters lose out to the slot machine.

Timber

 

[Ollie]

I received a call last Thursday afternoon that all bills for forest regeneration that are in-progress on my property under the NRCS had to be signed that night or I would lose the matching funds to pay. I ended up making a late afternoon drive from Iowa City to the NRCS office in Keosauqua to meet the deadline. No one was given adequate time to react on this. Sounds like funny business and money shuffling going on with the state budget in Des Moines.