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BEELER, Kan. —(AP)— A popular government farm program designed to take sensitive land out of production could also be putting some people out of business if the economy doesn't turn around soon. In Kansas, 2.7 million acres of farmland are sitting idle under the Conservation Reserve Program, which began in 1985. It pays farmers as an incentive to protect the land, but some say that in the process it's also hurting companies that rely on farmers growing and harvesting crops. Raymond Lamoree, who stops at Beeler's grain elevator almost daily to chat with other area farmers over coffee, said he is taking more than 200 acres of cropland out of wheat production and enrolling it in CRP. ``I think it's a wonderful thing so we can retire,'' Lamoree, 81, said during a visit to the Beeler Co-op Exchange. ``It's hard to make a living as a farmer, and I have to make a living some way.'' Dale Klenke, the cooperative's manager, is worried that the Ness County elevator's days are numbered because of the amount of land being enrolled in the program. ``You can't support a grain elevator without any grain,'' he said. ``And I figure they took 50 percent out of my territory.'' Ness County is located in a wildlife habitat area and its landowners will lead the state in acreage put into the program this time around. A total of 30,174 acres were signed in recently, giving the county around 71,000 acres enrolled in the CRP program. In his newletter to co-op members this month, Klenke said the impact of the land being taken out of production could be a merger with another elevator operation. That would result in some layoffs, he said, including the manager and bookkeeper. ``I'm 58 years old, and I don't think it's easy to find a job like this when the retirement age is 62,'' Klenke said. Nobody wants the elevator to merge, said Allen Goodman, who farms near Beeler and serves on the cooperative's board. Beeler has only two businesses on its dirt main street. The post office is still open, but for how long is anybody's guess. The school closed years ago, and fewer than a dozen people live in the community. A merger likely would mean losing the full-service elevator, where people can go to get their tires fixed, fill up their vehicles with fuel, and buy animal health products in addition to dumping their grain. Rod Winkler, an FSA conservation program specialist, said half of the farmers who enroll in CRP do so because they're concerned about the environment, according to a national study of the program. The other half are farmers who want to slow down. With the average age of the Kansas farmer nearing 60, he said, some see the program as a retirement check. ``Economics might come first,'' Winkler said. ``They are looking at multi years of drouth, and they see this as a viable opportunity.'' A Ness County Extension Office study said the county could lose $6.5 million a year by seeding the new CRP acreage to grass. Figures include input costs such as fuel and fertilizer, and the economic loss of not harvesting a crop. Klenke said this has not been a great commodity year. The wheat crop was average, he said, and he'll be lucky if a dozen truckloads of milo come across his scales. ``You can't blame these people'' for enrolling in CRP, he said. ``But don't think I don't understand that is going to impact the community.'' |
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