Farmgate discusses the dilemma many crop farmers face with high grain prices tempting farmers to get land out of CRP. In this area, efforts to increase CRP in erodible land is increasing in an effort to reduce sediment going into rivers.

Perennially, USDA receives pressure from livestock owners and the grain handling industry to phase out the CRP so more grain will be produced and grain prices can fall. That will likely recur this year, while environmental groups continue to lobby for CRP expansion. But Babcock and Hart contend that high grain prices will cause many CRP landowners to suffer the financial penalty and plant their land. If that is the inevitability, Babcock and Hart suggest:

1) USDA should reduce penalties for breaking contracts on the land that will expire in the next three years, which will not be as environmentally sensitive.
2) Some CRP landowners who just re-enrolled environmentally sensitive land will probably break their contracts to allow planting.
3) If USDA sees it is losing control of environmentally sensitive land, it could take new bids on the land, to enable that land to remain out of production, but at a higher cost that more closely parallels current land prices.
4) Re-bidding the land would also allow control over the environmentally sensitive land while opening up less sensitive land to grain production that satisfies the livestock industry.