 Well, good morning. It is 11am. I'd like to welcome everyone to the spring 2020 FSA farm webinar series. My name is Dave Ripplinger. I'm an Extension economist with NDSU Extension. It's really a privilege for me to welcome you to this series of webinars. NDSU Extension has long worked with FSA to serve farmers and others in the state. This webinar series is just another example of that. Today, we're going to talk about conservation programs, and I'd like to welcome our presenters and colleagues at FSA. I'd like to say good morning to everyone. And as Dave said, my name is Wanda Brayden, and I'm the aid program specialist with the North Dakota State Farm Service Aid. I work with the programs of conservation and livestock disaster programs. As we celebrate the 35th year of the Conservation Reserve Program or CRP, we see how programs have evolved over the years, providing a variety of conservation and economic benefits for landowners. CRP is one of the largest private land conservation program in the United States, which helps producers better manage their operations while conserving natural resources. By enrolling in CRP, producers are improving water quality, reducing soil erosion, and restoring the habitat for wildlife. Farmers and ranchers who enroll in the programs receive a yearly annual payment for voluntarily establishing those long-term resource conserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees and shrubs, to control soil erosion, improve the water quality, and develop wildlife habitat on marginal productive agricultural lands. As you know, FSA just completed the CRP General Signup 54 in late February, and over 3.4 million acres were accepted in the first General Signup enrollment since 2016. Today we're going to highlight a few of the other conservation programs that are ongoing and promote information on how producers can work with their local county office to identify areas of concern and make offers for enrollment in the program while maintaining social distancing due to COVID-19. So we're going to begin with our ship. The 2018 Farm Bill reauthorized CRP, but it also included two new CRP pilot programs, one of which is called the Clear 30, which is devoted to the clean lakes, estuaries, and rivers. And the second is the Soil Health and Income Protection pilot program, which is otherwise known as SHIP. This Farm Bill, which is known as the Agricultural Act of 2018, included expanded opportunities for hain grazing and other management tools through the implementation of the SHIP pilot program in five states that are located in the Prairie Podhole region, which are Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. The purpose of SHIP is to provide improved soil health and water quality for less productive land, farmland, by allowing the producers to plant preannual cover. In return for the program provides an annual rental payment and gives the producers the option of a short-term contract. So instead of the standard 10-year contract, a producer can opt for either a three, a four, or a five-year contract for this program. As stated on the previous slide, this map identifies those five eligible states that are in that Prairie Podhole region in which the SHIP pilot program will be available to eligible producers in all counties. To be eligible for the program, land must have been annually planted in the three previous years, 2017, 18, and 19. The land is ineligible for SHIP if the intended acreage was enrolled in CRP in the last three years. The land enrolled cannot be more than 15 percent of the SHIP eligible land on the farm. And when we talk about SHIP eligible land, we are talking about those acres that have been determined to be less productive than other crop land on the farm. Producers will be required to plant preannual cover that will improve soil health and water quality on those enrolled acres. Also under SHIP, producers are responsible for the cost of planting the preannual cover crop. Therefore, there's no cost share available for the establishment unless the producer has certified with FSA that they are an underserved producer. Aid producers are able to improve the productivity of the soil and soil health on a farm by participating in this pilot program. Producers will have the option to harvest the seed. They can hay and or graze the acreage during certain times of the year without penalty. And that is a key difference from the standard CRP programs that we're all used to. In exchange for placing land into SHIP, producers will receive an annual rental payment of 50 percent of the county average soil rental rate. So for example, if the county average rental rate is $100 per acre, then the producer would receive $50 per acre for the enrollment into this program. If the producer is a beginning, limited resource, socially disadvantaged, or veteran farmer, 75 percent of the county average soil rental rate would apply. So to continue with the same example from the previous slide, if the county average rental rate is $100, then the producer who is certified as an underserved producer would receive an annual rental payment of $75 per acre. Cost share is also available for the beginning socially disadvantaged, limited resource or veterans for establishing for establishment at a 50 percent of the eligible cost for establishment not to exceed established limitations that we have here at FSA. And as an additional note, when we're talking about those underserved producer groups, gender is excluded from this eligibility criteria. So gender would not be one of the qualifying factors. Participation in SHIP program is limited to 50,000 acres across the five pilot states. Offers are not ranked like a typical CRP process. If it is determined that the producer has eligible land for this program and the acreage cap of 50,000 has not been reached, then the producer can sign up on a first come, first serve basis. It's important that producers visit their county offices early in order to be included in this program. Sign up for SHIP began on March 30th and it will end on August 21st of 2020 or when the 50,000 acres have been exhausted. The effective date for all the approved contracts under SHIP will be October 1st of 2020. So again, please make an appointment, a phone appointment with your local county office as soon as possible to learn more information. So some of those approved uses after the cover is established, participants can request to harvest the grass seed outside the primary nesting season in exchange for 25 percent reduction to the annual rental payment. Also, that seed harvested would not be eligible for insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act. Acreage enrolled under SHIP would be eligible for the state's plot program in which producers would receive additional benefit through the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Other approved uses include haying and grazing opportunities outside of the primary nesting season. So if grazing, no greater than 50 percent of the year's annual growth can be grazed to ensure adequate stubble height of the cover is maintained. And our primary nesting season in North Dakota is April 15th through August 1st. If you're haying, there is no reduction in the annual rental payment outside that primary nesting season. So one of the requirements is that producers must establish the lowest practical cost for annual conserving use cover that promotes soil health under the SHIP program. North Dakota NRCF has provided a few seeding options that are based on the soil types and the characteristics of the eligible offered acres. And we have those listed on this slide. So if you have those soils that are fair to good soils, they might have an intermittent wheatgrass and alfalfa of a 50-50 mix for hay or at a 70-30 mix for grazing. If you have saline soils, you might have western wheatgrass or green wheatgrass with elk site over at a 70-30 mix. Those clay pan soils might have a western wheatgrass, slender wheatgrass, and alfalfa of a 70-30 mix. So these are just some options that producers might be looking at. For good soils for late summer or fall pasture, you might have a mix of a switchgrass monoculture. A couple of other things to think about is that alfalfa may not be an ideal cover as a harvest cannot occur until after that primary nesting season is done or not until August 2nd. And then for seed production, single species adapted to the soil would be best. And even though we have provided a few seed mixtures, all sites are required to have a site-specific mix planned. Therefore, if enrolled, the participants would have to work with their local NRCS to develop a site-specific conservation plan. Keeping in mind that cost share is only available for those producers who have certified as being an underserved producer. The CRP grasslands program is also part of the Conservation Reserve or CRP. And as we said, for 35 years, CRP has helped protect fragile lands, improve water quality, enhance wildlife populations, provided pollinator forage habitat and enhance soil productivity. And as we discussed earlier, CRP has other aspects of the program with rolling signup periods such as grasslands. And that signup actually began on March 16th of 2020. The CRP grasslands program was created by the 2014 Farm Bill and was reauthorized under the Agricultural Act of 2018. The program was developed to protect environmentally sensitive lands such as grasslands, range lands and pastures from the threat of conversion for development or other cropland uses. And it maintains the viability of grassland cover. The grasslands program provides support for grazing systems and biodiversity of plants and animal populations in exchange for an annual rental payment. So how is the CRP grasslands program different than general CRP? Unlike general CRP, the grasslands program does not require a cropping history to be eligible for the program. One of the unique features of this program is that the producer can still have land in production, unlike most CRP programs, which are restricted to non-productive lands. Hain and grazing or harvesting of seed production is allowed as detailed in the contribution plan. And although the timing of these activities may be restricted by the primary nesting season of the bird, this program still provides you with those opportunities. Grazing related activities such as cross fencing and livestock watering development, which are available on some continuous CRP practices, are also allowed under the CRP grasslands program. So those are some of the differences between grasslands and the general CRP. CRP grassland practices allow for production practices so producers are able to graze the land and employ maintenance practices that maintain and enhance the viability of the grassland cover. Producers can hay, mow, and harvest seed with an approved plan. They can maintain existing vegetative cover of introduced grasses. The program also allows for those activities to prevent fire, such as the construction of fire breaks on the enrolled acres, along with allowing grazing related activities such as fencing and livestock watering facilities to be established. FSA provides costier assistance to producers who establish the approved practices on eligible land in an amount that is not more than 50% of the participants' eligible costs in establishing the approved practices. So authorized cost share available could be for permanent fencing, for crop rotation and better grazing distribution. It could be for ponds, wells, spring development if water is needed, fuel breaks, brush management, livestock trails, prescribed burning to name a few of those. For program eligibility, a producer must have owned or operated land for at least 12 months prior to the close of the CRP enrollment period. There are a few exceptions to this requirement such as if the land was acquired through inheritance, through a death, or through foreclosure, or any other circumstance in which the land was acquired for purposes other than placement and to CRP. And those type of circumstances would have to be reviewed by your local county committee. For the eligible land, land currently must have an existing grass cover. So in order to enroll it into this program, it must be planted to a grass cover. When we're talking about eligible land, we're talking about land on a track or a portion of a track that contains forbs or shrubs, including improved pasture land and range land for which grazing is a predominant use. And this can include land that is located in an area historically dominated by grasslands or where it could provide habitat for animal and plant populations of significant value if the land is retained in its current use or restored to a natural condition. And it could also be expiring CRP without any tree practices on there. So if you have an expiring CRP contract that has a tree practice, that would not be eligible for this program. But for those expiring CRP contracts that are devoted to grass, they would be potentially eligible for this program. So how are the offers determined? Just like the general signup, the program utilizes a seven ranking factor process where each grassland offer is assigned a point score based on the offer's ranking factors. Please note one of the factors that are available is for the beginning socially disadvantaged limited resource or veteran farmers. And then for this signup, there's another factor that exists for small livestock operations where producers can receive additional points for those small scale type operations. There are fact sheets available that producers can download or request the local county offices to provide that contains additional information on each one of these seven ranking factors. And again, the specifics regarding these factors will be explained in detail during your phone appointment with the local county office. Previously, the CRP grasslands program was a continuous signup program. However, much like a general CRP grasslands now has a signup period, which runs from March 16th to May 15th. The contract duration can be either a 10 to a 15 year contract, whereas all contracts for grasslands in the past were all 15 years. Now you can actually elect to have a 10 to a 15 year contract, 10 or 15 year contract. Producers will have the opportunity to withdraw or modify offers anytime before the close of the signup without any penalty. How are the offers determined? Well, again, like we said, this is a competitive program in which FSA will rank the offers. As I mentioned on the previous slide, points are based on those seven ranking factors. So each offer will compete against all other offers that are made, and then FSA will determine the offer acceptability based on those ranking results. On this screen, I've just provided some resources to find some fact sheets, grassland fact sheets. They're available that provide some additional program details and grassland ranking process information. So interested participants can find these fact sheets online using the link provided on the screen. Another conservation program that is ongoing in North Dakota is the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program or CREP. So what is CREP? CREP is a part of CRP, which is in which it is administrated under the same statutes and federal regulations. CREP was designed to provide a flexible and cost-effective means to address agricultural resource problems by targeting both federal and state resources to specific geographic regions of substantial environmental sensitivity. CREP is a means to cost-effectively use CRP to address specific conservation environmental objectives within a state. The North Dakota Repairian Project Agreement, or CREP-2 as it is known, was developed by the state of North Dakota and USDA Farm Service Agency. The CREP-2 agreement was signed back on January 18th of 2017. The project was funded for implementation in 16 counties in southwestern North Dakota, where portions of each of the 16 counties have watersheds that have identified by the state as having water quality impairments. The project was developed to address water quality issues by reducing the amount of sediment, nutrients, and other pollutants from entering our rivers and streams, and also for the enhancement of habitats and forage for our honeybees and other wildlife. CREP is designed to help improve water quality by establishing and maintaining buffers of permanent vegetation between the water body itself and the adjacent egg cropland to provide benefits to the pollinators, including honeybees and other wildlife. This map identifies the eligible areas in the 16 counties for CREP-2, and at least 51% of the cropland enrolled under the CREP project must be physically located in the project area, and all cropland enrolled must be physically located in the state of North Dakota. So this just gives you an idea of where those eligible acres exist. The North Dakota Repairing Project is looking to enroll up to 20,000 acres, in which only new land is eligible to be offered for this program. Land previously enrolled in CRP or currently enrolled in CRP is not eligible under CREP-2. A CREP-2 contract must be for a period of no less than 10 years and no more than 15 years in length, and there are no easements required for this program. As with other CRP programs, eligible participants would receive federal cost share assistance up to 50% of the eligible reimbursable cost incurred for the establishment of the conservation practices such as filter strips, repairing buffers, and pollinator habitat, not to exceed rates that have been established by FSA. In exchange for enrolling land into CREP-2, participants will receive from USDA a one-time signing incentive payment, along with annual soil rental payments that include an incentive payment that is based upon the type of conservation cover that is established under this program. So like I said, this is a joint effort between federal and state, so when we're looking at the mission of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department is to protect, conserve, and enhance fish and wildlife populations and their habitat. The North Dakota Game and Fish utilizes the Private Land Initiative or PLI to achieve this mission on private lands, and one of the objectives of the PLI is to provide the public access to fish and wildlife resources on private lands through the PLOTS program. As stated earlier, CREP is a cost-effective means to address or target specific resource concerns in an area of the state. Therefore, the North Dakota Repair and Project was a collaborative project with the USDA Farm Service Agency and the Outdoor Heritage Fund, which is managed by the state of North Dakota. Since the project targets important areas of water quality and pollinator habitat, additional incentives have been established using the North Dakota Game and Fish PLOTS program and the Outdoor Heritage Fund. Under CREP II, the North Dakota Game and Fish PLOTS payments will include a one-time incentive payment of $100 per CREP acre enrolled. It provides cost share up to 50% of the eligible cost to install the approved conservation practice. However, the total of all cost share, both federal and state, shall not exceed 100% of the producer's out-of-pocket expenses. Under the PLOTS program, there's also additional cost share for certain management activities if required, and it also provides an annual payment for land that is enrolled in PLOTS. Keep it in mind that the minimum acreage enrollment for PLOTS is 40 acres through this CREP II. North Dakota Game and Fish may provide additional incentives for producers who wish to enroll land into ship and into the CREP grasslands acres into PLOTS as well. So in looking at this, the breakdown would be approximately $2 for CREP acres for the CREP grasslands and approximately 2 to 5 acres for CREP acreage in ship, along with some possible cost share opportunities and additional incentive payments. So that's something producers who are interested in those other two type of programs might be interested in working with North Dakota Game and Fish through their PLOTS program as well. I've included this map, which provides information for the eight PLOTS districts and their contact information in North Dakota. So if you're interested in the PLOTS program, I would just recommend reaching out to the applicable representative as indicated here. The last program that we're going to talk about today is a continuous CREP program. As with the other CREP programs, continuous is a voluntary program that allows producers to enroll environmental sensitive land into a long-term contract and establish resource-conserving vegetative species such as approved grasses or shrubs and trees to control soil erosion, improve water quality, and enhance wildlife habitat. The difference between general CREP and continuous is that the continuous is non-competitive. Environmentally sensitive labs can be enrolled in continuous at any time during the fiscal year with the exception of the expiring CREP, which may only be offered for enrollment six months prior to the expiration date or April 1st. Under continuous, there must be a resource concern that can be solved by the establishment of an approved conservation cover. Therefore, the conservation practices must be needed and feasible to solve the environmental concern as determined by the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Another difference is that for new land enrolled in continuous, the effective date may be the first of the months following the calling committee approval or the effective date may be deferred up to six months. So therefore, our programs work on a fiscal basis starting with October 1st, running through September 30th. If a producer was interested in enrolling new land into continuous and there's a resource concern, he could start as early as October 1 on that new land in order to enroll it into a continuous contract. And once that contract is approved and a conservation plan is developed, it can start the first of the month. So that first annual rental payment would be a prorated annual rental payment. Producer eligibility requirements are the same as as general CREP in which a producer must have owned or operated the land for at least 12 months prior to the CRP enrollment period. The exceptions that I talked about before, they do apply. For eligible land, it must be crop land that is planted or considered planted to an aid commodity for out of the six crop years 2012 to 2017. Land that was planted in rotation such as alfalfa may qualify along with FSA approved prevent plant acres. We no longer use crop insurance indemnity payments as proof of prevent plants that producer would have to have received FSA county committee approval on those prevent plant acres in order to qualify. And the other criteria for eligible land is that the land must be physically incapable of being planted in a normal manner and in a normal crop year. So in years of disaster, there might be water standing on some of that ground. However, we have to go back and take a look at whether or not it can be physically and capable legally capable of being planted in a normal manner in a normal year. Practice, eligible practices, they must be established to solve a specific resource concern on the environmental, on the environmentally insensitive land. So there again, depending on what that resource concern is, would depend on what practice would be eligible for enrollment. State acres for wildlife enhancement or SAIC is a state initiative that restores vital habitat in order to meet high priority state wildlife and water quality conservation goals. With the 2018 Farm Bill, safe conservation practices have been divided into two different types of signups, depending on the overall goal. Safe grass and tree practices are now part of the general CRP signup. And again, that signup ended in February. And for 2020, like I said, for 2020, it ended at the end of February. Through continuous SAIC, landowners can establish wetlands and buffers to protect soil and water health by working as a barrier to sediment and nutrient runoff before it reach those water bodies, such as our streams and our river. The one exception to the general safe grass practice enrollment is our salinity type practices, our CP-18Bs and Cs, as we call them, as the resource concern of salinity remains as a continuous safe conservation practice. So if you have those areas of concern that deal with salinity, we do have some continuous type practices that could help solve that resource concern. To be eligible for enrollment under continuous SAIC, a resource concern must be identified on the lands located within one of our six North Dakota designated safe project areas. I have those project areas listed, but if you're interested in determining whether or not your land is located in one of those areas, you should contact your local service center for more information. And producers and Cropland eligibility criteria also apply to land that is enrolled under our continuous SAIC practices. The signup period for new land began in 2020 on December 9th, and it runs through September 30th of 2020. Offers for expiring CRP, as we talked about, began on April 1st and again that runs through September 30th. Enrollment acreage must meet the specific size and limitations according to the conservation practice specifications and the safe project agreement if applicable. Contract links are between 10 to 15 years in which annual rental payments shall be issued. The cost share assistance is available at 50% of the eligible cost for practice establishment, not to exceed cost limitations, and a minimum of one required management must be performed without cost share according to an approved conservation plan. There is emergency and non-emergency Hain and grazing opportunities that could exist for some of the eligible practices. So during this period of social distancing through the COVID-19, county offices are open for business. However, their doors will remain locked at this time. So producers who wish to inquire on any of our conservation programs can contact their local county office and schedule a phone appointment at any time. So for those individuals who are interested in enrolling, land into one or more of the various conservation programs, we have identified some information that will be needed in order for you to work with your local service center to process an offer. So if you do not have the contact information for your local service center, please follow the link that I've provided to find the local contact information. And then the next step really would be to contact that local FSA office and indicate your desire to receive more information. Please provide the location of the land. You are interested in enrolling. The local county office can provide an aerial map through your chosen method of communication to assist in identifying those areas. And when I'm talking about the best method for communication, you would need to let them know if you use the United States Postal Service, if you have email capability texting, or if you have the capability of using any of our internal applications, such as teams or other type of applications that can be interactive. Those can be set up on any laptop or notepad that you have. I don't believe that they would work if you're just using a phone in order to do a lot of your information. But again, you can contact the county office and they can assist you in getting those applications updated or loaded onto your computer in order to be able to do an interactive type sign-up process. And then once that location has been identified, please schedule a time in order to conduct a phone appointment with the local office to review the CRP scenario that will be developed by the county office. Like I said, this information will be based on a specific site location, and therefore it might take a couple of exchanges to ensure that the correct area is identified. But once you've indicated your desire to continue, FSA will research the producer and land eligibility and help you to process that offer. Communication between the program participants and the local county office staff will be essential during this time of social distancing. So to ensure that offers for enrollment are completed, based on your desired location and farming operational needs, please allow for several exchanges with local staff. And like I said, the FSA staff, they are available by phone to assist in answering any of your questions and or preparing and processing any enrollment opportunity or options that you have. I've added an additional link here just for more information on any of these programs that I talked about today, along with where you can find program fact sheets for each one of these as well. So I'm going to turn this over to Lindsay. My name is Lindsay Abentrop, and I am the communications and outreach coordinator for North Dakota Farm Service Agency. I am just have a few slides here at the end to go over on how you can stay up to date with everything Farm Service Agency related. I just want to give a quick thanks and shout out to NDSU and Miranda and David and their communication department for allowing us this opportunity. In addition to this webinar on conservation, next Wednesday, just a reminder, the same time 11, we're going to go over farm loans so you can find out about facility loans, mal marketing assistance loans, as well as our direct and guaranteed loan programs. And then the following Wednesday, April 29, we're going to discuss ARC and PLC signups, acreage reporting, PLC yield update, as well as payment eligibility. And those are the ones that we have scheduled right now, but we look forward to continuing this outreach and education partnership with North Dakota State University. All right, the first slide here today, I want to talk to you about our GOV delivery email and text messaging communication opportunities. If you have not already subscribed to receive our GOV delivery emails and our text messages, I highly recommend that you do. When you sign up for this service, you are going to get at least monthly notifications on all very important dates, deadlines, program information from all of our departments. This flyer explains how you can sign up for both programs. And this isn't just in North Dakota now, this is in any states that you're at, you can go ahead and sign up for these great communication updates from the Farm Service Agency. So to subscribe to GOV delivery newsletters, you're going to go to www.fsa.usda.gov backslash subscribe, that's on that bottom paragraph there. And you can filter through the process and it's going to allow you a lot of opportunities for a lot of different USDA communication updates, but you'll notice that you can select FSA and then you can select your state and also every county that you would like to receive notifications from. The North Dakota State Office has a newsletter that goes out every month. In addition to every single county office in North Dakota gives out a communication or a newsletter every month. And what differs from the state is the state is all inclusive for everything going on in the world of FSA, where in your county office notifications, you're going to receive a little bit more of a personalized touch to the area that you're farming or ranching in. And this isn't just open to farmers and ranchers. Anybody can subscribe to this service, landowners, Congressional, media, commodity organizations just to stay up to date on what we have going on with FSA. We also have a text messaging service and we're working really hard to build up our text message subscribers just because we really believe in the program. We really believe that this is a great and fast opportunity and way that we can get very important and quick updates out via text message on very important dates or deadlines or new programs or maybe a county office is closed because of a weather event and so we prevent you from driving 50 miles to your nearest service center, things like that or outreach events. And to sign up for that service, you have to sign up for every county that you would be interested in receiving the notifications from. So maybe you farm and ranch in a couple of different counties, you can certainly subscribe separately. And what you do is you just text if we're talking I'll do North Dakota Steel for an example as on here. So ND, S-T-E-E-L-E to ever say now or the key code is 372669. So again, ND and then the county that you would like to receive the notification from. Just a few things on that. It's not case sensitive. So uppercase, lowercase when you opt in to receive that text message will work. Producers will receive a system generated reply if they have successfully enrolled. I do want to mention that standard text messaging rates may apply. So contact your wireless carrier for details associated with their particular data plan in case that's a concern to you. And participants may unsubscribe at any time. And the most important message here is our county offices have been trained that we will only be sending you out very important updates with critical information or deadlines or information that you would want to hear. It'll only be during business hours. So your phone's not going to go off at 11pm at night with a text message from us. And a lot of times you might not hear from us with a text message for a couple of months or maybe you'll receive a few in one month depending on what we have going on with that to say. So please remember it's just so important to stay in the know with FSA via our email and text messaging systems. And if you need help signing up for any of this that I've mentioned today, please feel free to call or contact your local county FSA office and they will be more than happy to help you get signed up for these services. This is a map that includes where all of the North Dakota USDA service centers are. The small dots is where we have a service center and you'll notice that we have a presence in every single county in North Dakota except for Billings and Slope down there in the southwest corner. The big dots are where we have a in addition to our USDA service center we have our farm loan office locations. And also in most of these locations there's an NRCS presence and some of the locations are world development location as well. All right Wanda touched on how you know during this unique time of social distancing we are definitely open for business and we are adjusting to technology and embracing it but again our offices are locked. So if you prefer to reach out via email you can certainly do that. I have included the email address for each service center in the state of North Dakota and so not just one employee will get this but all of the staff that work in that location will be able to access that email and get it to the appropriate person to help you and then I also have a phone number listed as well and then I just included all of the different counties here because I know that this will be recorded and people will want to refer back. So if you're looking for your email address especially and if you have a certain program technician that you work with on certain things you can certainly ask for their personal email as well and conduct business that way. So again here's McKenry through Ramsey, ransom through trail and then the final ones Walsh through Williams. Wanda mentioned there's a couple of different ways that you can find additional service center information including the address information and right down here is www.farmers.gov slash service center locator. Just a couple of additional communication resources if you haven't familiarized with yourself with these yet. farmers.gov has a ton of information out there that you can access on FSA programs so I would encourage you to visit that. Also coronavirus and USDA service centers there's a website that you can visit there just to stay up to date on the latest information going on with how we continue to operate under these unique social distancing the unique social distancing situation. The last slide here is I just included contact information for Wanda who presented today on conservation programs as well as Jay Hockalter who works with Wanda as a state specialist in conservation and then and then myself if you ever have any questions or like to reach out to me for any information you can certainly do that as well. So I thank you for your time today and I think I'll turn it back over to NDSU to moderate the question portion of this presentation. Most of the questions that we had are related to the CRP grasslands program. The most popular one I think was can native pasture be enrolled in the CRP grasslands program and and then to follow up with that would it qualify if it had an existing rotational grazing system on it? The answer to that is yes native grasslands would qualify for the program. The second one was rotational what was that the second one? If it had a rotational grazing system on it already would it still be eligible? Yes I mean it was that would be one of the things that we could definitely take a look at and see they'd have to establish a conservation plan in order to develop if they're having grazing on there they would have to perform that under the conservation plan requirements but yes they could work with rotational grazing on that. Another one on those same lines is permanent fence could this be both cross r perimeter my handwriting is awful. Cross fencing or perimeter is that what you're asking? Yes. There again that was just when I used the cross fencing that was just one of the examples of some of the cost-sharable items of course we'd have to take a look at the different type of fencing that is used but there are some different options for that so yes they could visit with their local office on what would be cost-sharable. For the CRP grassland program what is considered grass cover? It would be existing grass existing grass that they have out there again we would take a look at what that stand is in order to determine it so I you know it could be a monoculture or it could be a graph mix we would just have to take a look and see what they have. What are the grazing limitations as part of that program? For the grazing limitations we of course it's based on per animal unit I don't have the specifics in front of me right now but I could do some research in order to get back to whoever's asking that question if they want to reach out to me. We have to ensure that we have adequate double height left and I'm not I'm unclear right now as far as what that height level is. Similar to those grazing restrictions is can you graze and hay in the same year every year of the contract? You would not be able to hay and graze hay and graze the same acreage every year but they would put in a rotational grazing system that would be developed in that conservation plan. And then let's see I know there was another one on those lines. Do the hay and grazing dates for follow the primary nesting season limitations? The primary nesting season is the same regardless of what program that you're signing into so it begins today actually April 15th and runs in through August 1st so all those activities would be outside the primary nesting season except for our grassland. And it was it was pertaining to the grasslands program sorry. Again we would have to work with the conservation plan on that grazing or that rotational grazing plan. And just we I just I launched a poll a little bit ago about the usefulness of this webinar and if you have any comments please put them in the chat box we just as we've transitioning to these type of program means wanting to know how useful they are to everyone or if we're just putting too many webinars out there and you're getting sick of them. So any feedback you could provide would be wonderful. Another question was what about ponds currently in CRPM plots doesn't fencing and grazing conflict with the plots requirements? Well under the the plot program is a voluntary program that participants can enroll acreage into it's not a requirement if they're in CRP it just provides them with an additional opportunity to receive some additional funds for that. So if there's permanent fencing out there and they're entering into the plot program that would be one of the things that they would have to take into consideration when they're entering into that program. And again if they're interested in the plots program and some specific information on that they can reach out to the North Dakota Game and Fish on that program. All right I'm kind of I think you already just answered this but just for the conservation CRP program do you have to allow hunting? No it's like I said it's a voluntary program that but it provides some additional benefits to producers by enrolling their land into the plots program. And then a final question I think this this is all of them then other than a unique one I'll email you but in the CREP2 would a buffer previously enrolled in the CSP program qualified and no longer in CSP? We're talking about the inner CSP, conservation program, not expiring CRP. Yes, one of the restrictions is that it has to be new land it cannot be you know existing CRP or expired CRP. Now when we're talking about other conservation programs there are certain eligibility criteria that apply to that. Likely the CSP would not meet the cropping history requirements so under the for the CREP program but we would have to take a look at that on a case-by-case basis. Okay there was another question as so will you be providing Q&A to the county offices on this meeting? Providing Q&A's Is that what the question is? To the county offices yes. If we can get a list of all the questions that were asked on today's call yes we could provide some Q&A's. Okay yeah I can provide you the chat.