Your Stewardship Goals. Our Assistance.
Have you ever looked across your property and thought about some land management goals you would like to take to the next level? Maybe we can help.
No one knows more about your land than you do, and no one knows more about conservation than we do. Together we can develop a plan tailored to your land and your goals to help you increase productivity and protect the value of your land.
Our Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) helps you build on your existing conservation efforts while strengthening your operation. Whether you are looking to improve grazing conditions, increases crop yields, or develop wildlife habitat, we can custom design a CSP plan to help you meet those goals. We can help you schedule timely planting of cover crops, develop a grazing plan that will improve your forage base, implement no-till to reduce erosion or manage forested areas in a way that benefits wildlife habitat. If you are already taking steps to improve the condition of the land, chances are CSP can help you find new ways to meet your goal.
Application
Applications for CSP are accepted year round. Though signup is continuous, funding selections are made at specific times during the fiscal year
Sustainable Production
CSP is for working lands. It is the largest conservation program in the United States with 70 million acres of productive agricultural and forest land enrolled in CSP. Thousands of people have made the choice to voluntarily enroll in the program because it helps them enhance natural resources and improve their business operation.
Some of the benefits include:
- Improved cattle gains per acre
- Increased crop yields
- Decreased inputs
- Wildlife population improvements
- Better resilience to weather extremes
Through CSP, we can help build your business while implementing conservation practices that help ensure the sustainability of your entire operation. Good land stewardship not only conserves the natural resources on your farm, ranch or forest, it also provides multiple benefits to local communities, including better water and air quality and wildlife habitat, as well as food and fiber.
Targeted Resource Concerns for Montana
- Degraded Plant Condition
- Fish and Wildlife – Inadequate Habitat
- Soil Erosion
- Soil Quality Degradation
- Water Quality Degradation
Resource Conserving Crop Rotations for Montana
A Resource Conserving Crop Rotation (RCCR) for Montana can be either;
- A perennial grass, legume or grass legume mix grown for a minimum of two consecutive years with at least one year of another crop in the rotation. The RCCR enhancement is not eligible on land that currently is used for long term hay or pasture. The grass or legume must be grown for a minimum of two years but no more than 6 years; total rotation can be no more than 7 years. This would involve converting existing cropland where annually planted crops are grown and planting a grass, legume or grass legume mix that is grown for a minimum of two years.
OR
- Growing an annual legume as a green manure or a “cocktail mix” cover crop for soil health in a small grain rotation. Interseeding of green manure or “cocktail mix” with the cash crop or seeding after harvest is allowed only under irrigated or high moisture conditions. No harvest or removal of small grain residue or cover crops is allowed.
CSP Contracts and Payments
The program represents a genuine commitment to conservation. CSP contracts last five years, with the option to renew if you successfully fulfill the initial contract and agree to achieve additional conservation objectives. An NRCS conservation planner will work closely with you throughout the entire process.
Contract payments are based on two components:
- Annual Payment - For installing and adopting additional conservation activities and improving, maintaining, and managing existing conservation activities across the entire agricultural operation. Annual payments may vary from year to year depending on the management system agreed to at the time of enrollment and the extent of additional activities completed each year. Additional activity payments will be based on the activities actually completed in a given year and existing activity payments will be the same each year and can be made in years when there are no new activities scheduled.
- Supplemental Payments - Can be made on cropland for either adopting a resource conserving crop rotation or improving a resource conserving crop rotation.
Minimum Payments: NRCS will make a $1,500 minimum payment to a CSP contract in any fiscal year that the contract’s payment amount total is less than $1,500.
You will be required to maintain the stewardship level of the resource concerns you are already meeting, plus meet or exceed at least one additional resource concern in each land use by the end of the contract. If the objectives of the initial CSP contract are achieved, you may be eligible to re-enroll for an additional 5 year contract if you agree to adopt additional conservation activities to meet or exceed two additional priority resource concerns.
Prior-Year Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) Montana Archives
Contact
Kelley Barkell
CSP and EQIP Specialist
Phone: 406-587-6849
Email: Kelley.Barkell
For further information and assistance, contact your local NRCS Field Service Center.
