Goehring asks for grazing on CRP

BISMARCK (AP) — North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring is asking the federal government to allow ranchers who can’t access summer pastures because of wet conditions to graze their animals on Conservation Reserve Program acres.

CRP land is idled to prevent erosion and provide wildlife habitat. Landowners sign a contract with the government and get a payment for not using the land.

Goehring said ranchers across the state are finding that their summer pastures are inundated and unusable, or that they can’t get cattle to pasture because of roads washed out during spring flooding.

Goehring said the federal Farm Service Agency already has helped North Dakota ranchers by allowing them to use CRP acres for livestock holding areas during the spring calving and lambing season.

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