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Celebrating 30 years of the Conservation Reserve Program

Mulfords

For the last 30 years the Conservation Reserve Program has been helping farmers improve soil and water quality.  Brad Pfaff, Deputy Administrator of Farm Programs for the Farm Service Agency says CRP isn’t a one-size-fits-all program – but there is something available for everyone.  “There’s a number of different practices within CRP that can assist working land and assist farm owners in making their farm more productive,” he says.

AUDIO: Brad Pfaff, Farm Service Agency

On Wednesday Pfaff was at Dr. Bob and Ellen Mulford’s Capability Farm in southeast Indiana.

Six years ago they decided to take the 60 percent of their farm which had corn and soybeans growing on it and put it in conservation programs.

Bob Mulford says the ground was productive – but it wasn’t like he had remembered.  By working with the local Natural Resources Conservation Services office he was able to implement conservation practices on all of his approximately 400 acre farm.  “We could see a decrease in bird-life and insects,” he says.  “I wanted to restore that balance that I felt was there before.  We felt this was the best way to do that.”

Ellen Mulford says one of the projects she is has been working on is restoring monarch butterfly populations.  She tells Brownfield the monarch butterfly population has decreased 90 percent in the last 20 years because of loss of habitat.  “They have to have milkweed,” she says.  “The caterpillars must eat milkweed and the butterflies can only lay eggs in milkweed.  When they farm road to road, there is no milkweed for the monarchs.  You miss the beauty of all that.  If we don’t do something about it future generations won’t be able to enjoy that.”

AUDIO: Bob and Ellen Mulford, Capability Farm

Pfaff says the Mulford’s farm serves as a model for successful implementation of conservation practices.

AUDIO: Julia Wickard, Farm Service Agency – Indiana

 

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