In the Flint Hills of Kansas, burning the dead prairie grasses each spring is more than a ranching tradition.
Fred Berns sees it as an economic necessity.
Berns, who stood beside his large white farmhouse near Peabody, on the eastern edge of tallgrass prairie country, told a group of producers and U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran the fires that sweep across his rolling hills remove invasive species like cedars, clean out last year’s grasses and encourage growth of nutritious bluestem.
After a burning, his cattle gain a tenth to a quarter of a pound each day, he said.
“It’s the multiplier effect,” Berns said, noting he estimates the grocery store and businesses of downtown Peabody, about 50 miles east of Reno County, see the effects sevenfold. “This is more than just burning. This impacts the Kansas economy.”
Berns’ Marion County ranch was just one stop on Moran’s two-day conservation tour that started Tuesday and included visits to Reno and McPherson counties.
In Reno County, producer David Munden talked about using prescribed burning to manage his Conservation Reserve Program acreage.
Moran also learned about water quality issues at Marion Reservoir and the use of subsurface irrigation to water crops in McPherson.
Moran said he has been doing the tour for nine years to learn more about what Kansans are doing to protect the state’s resources.
More and more, he said, his Washington counterparts tend to reward environmental practices farmers make to the land and water supplies rather than giving a direct handout. He said the tour helps him “learn about what we’ve been doing to protect our environmental resources in Kansas,” he said, adding that the information he learns on the tour is useful when making decisions in Washington. “It’s an opportunity to make sure these programs work.”
But while the tour focused on the positives happening in Kansas, Moran said the new farm bill calls for capping CRP at 32 million acres, down from the previous 36 million-acre cap.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 4.5 million acres expire in 2010 and 4.4 million in 2011.
Moran said USDA officials have indicated they might allow a one-year extension on acreage coming out in 2010.
Only 40 to 60 percent of landowners, however, would get that option.
Considering the program takes sensitive land out of production, as well as helps build wildlife habitat, declining CRP acres is a concern, Moran said. He added that it’s questionable whether Congress will revisit the issue.
Meanwhile, Moran said the fight for farm subsidies is just beginning in the House and Senate.
Last month, President Barack Obama proposed $16 billion in cuts to farm subsidies.
Moran said Tuesday that while the House Budget Committee made no changes to farm bill funding in a resolution passed in late March, the Senate committee approved a budget resolution proposing to reduce crop insurance outlays by $350 million over a five-year period.
