By Dan Wermager
Technician, Root River SWCD
An exciting opportunity for prairie strips is now available for area farmers. Prairie strips are a fairly new CRP practice. They reduce erosion, improve water quality, and create insect and bird habitat by establishing strips of native prairie vegetation on a field. They can be placed across a field in one or more contour strips, along grassed waterways or terraces, or on field perimeters or headlands. Planted as contour strips, they can give you the erosion-saving benefits of hay strips without the extra time and labor that comes with managing a hay crop. On field perimeters they can act as a nice buffer between your crops and adjacent woodland. On field headlands they can replace the end rows that are running straight up and down the hill, covering this area in sod and eliminating the severe erosion that often occurs there. They can also be used to “square-up” the ends of oddly shaped fields, making them easier to farm.
It is a very flexible program, and these prairie strips can be placed just about wherever you like within your cropping system. Along with other criteria, these strips must have a seed mix containing at least 10 different wildflower species and be 30-120’ wide. Width can vary, as long as it is within this range. Turning machinery around on these strips is allowed, but using them as field roads is not. Since prairie strips are a CRP practice, you will get a yearly payment from USDA-Farm Service Agency (FSA) for each acre enrolled, based on soil type. You will also receive cost-share for planting the strips, as well as considerable incentive payments up-front. To make it even more appealing, Root River Soil and Water Conservation District is now offering an additional $80/acre/year payment to stack on top of the CRP payments. For example, if your yearly payment from FSA for the prairie strip is $200/acre/year, Root River SWCD will pay you an additional $80/acre/year, bringing your total payment up to a whopping $280/acre/year. We think this additional payment will make prairie strips a practical option for area farmers. These strips have been shown to reduce the amount of sediment leaving a field by up to an incredible 95%!
Talk about a win-win. To learn more or to sign up, contact FSA or Root River SWCD in Caledonia at 507-724-5261.
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