TIP helps young or disadvantaged growers add acres

By JOHN O'CONNELL

Capital Press

ROCKLAND, Idaho -- Standing on a hillside covered in golden spring wheat, Scott Wegner looked upon a plume of smoke rising from grassland in the distance.

The 36-year-old dryland farmer explained it was a controlled burn, clearing 900 acres that have been out of production since 1986 through the Conservation Reserve Program. Thanks to the Transition Incentive Program, intended to help young and disadvantaged farmers add acres to their operations, Wegner will seed that land this fall with winter wheat.

During the 2012 crop year, Wegner will more than double the size of his Rockland farm by reclaiming CRP ground -- adding 1,500 of 2,800 former CRP acres through TIP.

Though TIP is relatively small, Wegner believes it restores prime farmland to its intended purpose while aiding in replacing an aging population of growers.

"Rather than the big, huge farms gobbling up all the ground, it gives these younger farmers opportunities to grow and be more established and make it so they can make a go of it for the rest of their lives," said Wegner, a diesel mechanic by trade who is now farming full time.

Enrollment in TIP is offered on a continuous basis to new or disadvantaged farmers or ranchers who lease or buy land expiring from CRP from retired or retiring owners. Leases must be at least five years long. A new grower is defined as one with less than a decade of experience.

The national program is financed with $25 million authorized from the Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. It pays participating landowners, provided the transition isn't to a family member, annual rental payments for up to two years after the expiration of the CRP contract.

Sherrie Brooks, conservation specialist with the Idaho Farm Service Agency, said the state currently has 19 TIP contracts totaling 4,697 acres. The majority of the contracts are in Power County, where Brooks anticipates additional growth as a large number of CRP contracts are set to expire soon, but there are also three contracts in Bear Lake County, one in Caribou County and two in Latah County.

"I think the next several years are going to be big years for land coming out of CRP," Wegner said. "They're not going to make any more soil, and growers need land to grow food with."

Rockland Valley dryland wheat and safflower farmer Cory Kress worked for J.R. Simplot Co. out of college before acquiring land with low-interest FSA loans offered to beginning growers. Kress, 32, later took over the family farm after his father's death five years ago.

He added 900 acres to his farm last fall and this spring through the TIP program, leasing from two different landlords.

"Anything to get kids back to the farm is a good thing just to carry on the family farming tradition in this country," Kress said.

"The price of land and equipment is so astronomical now that it would literally be impossible without some of these programs."