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NRCS farming approval

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I'm not a farmer and never will pretend, but I do have some ground. All hay. My current tenant at the time asked about crops and getting approval to do it; something like a 3/7 year crop/hay rotation. I went to county office and got approval for a little less than half of the ground; in all it's marginal at best because it is labeled erodible. During the conversation with them, they did say that I could do the whole thing if I wanted. What does this mean? What did I have to get approval for if it could all be done anyways? Is the approval just a guarantee for crop insurance? (I asked some questions about this at the time but being new to it and not knowing what to all ask at the time....) I did talk to them about all beans one year in order to reseed with permanent cover (switch/NWSG) the next and that was written up and "approved". Also talked to a guy who would farm the whole thing no problem; it's not unfarmable

Goal: add crops to the farm and increase wildlife, of course. Possibly increase rent income but being below average ground who knows.

What to avoid: I don't want to try crops and run into major erosion issues and have trouble getting the hay reestablished which will end up costing me financially in the long run

Thanks for the help
*edited for additional info
 
They may be referring to a conservation plan. Example: You can farm row crop for three years, then you have to mix in hay or alfalfa on certain side hills to prevent erosion. Personally, I think you are doing the right thing, adding crop rarely hurts the wildlife value, and you may be able to establish crop history for future CRP. Good luck.
 
They did write up the conservation plan for a rotation on X out of Y acres. That might be the "approval". But still don't understand the part about being able to farm all Y acres.
 
If your tenant does crop it you should require that they use some sort of cover crops inter-seeded into the standing crops about Aug 15-Sept 15. This will help stop nutrient loss and help prevent soil erosion during the time when the cash crops are off.
 
So the FSA will tell you "if" you can farm it and the Nrcs tells you how to farm it. If it's already approved acres it probably has a corn base, you are good to go. If there are acres you want to farm but are not approved you can still farm it, just can't get subsidies from gov. I had a field that wasn't "approved", it was corn this year ;)
 
Scott said:
So the FSA will tell you "if" you can farm it and the Nrcs tells you how to farm it. If it's already approved acres it probably has a corn base, you are good to go. If there are acres you want to farm but are not approved you can still farm it, just can't get subsidies from gov. I had a field that wasn't "approved", it was corn this year ;)
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Were you allowed to used anhydrous? When they said I could farm it all, they said I could not use anhydrous.
 
I was in the office the other day putting together an offer for new CRP and talked to them about the approval. Apparently, it had already been approved and has a corn base; from sometime before I purchased the ground. I'm not sure how or why I had to go through the trouble with one person when I got a different response from someone else. At any rate, I appreciate the help above
 
One option if erosi0n is an issue one option may be available and that is doing CP33 around the edge and then crops in rest of field.This is a strip up to 120ft of NWSG.You guys have to through alot more than we do in kansas.We have to enroll in CRP to get approved for that but we plant what we want.Whats most common here is farmer gets 2/3 and pays for everything except 1/3 of fertilizer and owner gets 1/3 of all crops or there are some that cash rent.The FSA can help you with contracts with farmers.In Kansas if you don't specify that farmer only has rights to farm they can actually lease out land for hunting are whatever.FSA can also help you with cash rent prices which can be a great way to go because your income isn't affected by weather and farmer takes the risks.
 
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