1995 Annual Report for FNC95-096
Nebraska CIP Research Project: Comparing Alternative Uses of Land Currently in the CRP Program
Summary
Considering the uncertainty of the future of the CRP program and the potential for erosion from highly erodible land, seeking alternatives to cropping of CRP acres when contracts expire may prove very worthwhile.
Objectives: To domonstrate alternative uses of CRP acres seeded to big bluestem, switch grass and brome by comparing management intensive grazing to a simple rotational grazing system. Beef cows/calves were used to collect data on the economics of the systems compared to historical crop production. Demonstrations also included fencing, watering and grazing techniques.
Results: By icluding costs such as terracing to bring land into conservation compliance, the grazing system had considerable advantage. When conservation compliance costs were omitted, corn/soybeans held a slight advantage using historical yield data and 1995 commodity prices.