Welcome

Submitted by Braedon Honetschlager, NRCS Soil Conservationist

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The second week of November, the James River SCD’s 2023 Achievement Winners, the Nate Sand family, were honored at the 85th Annual Meeting the North Dakota Association of SCDs. Nate started farming in 2012 as a beginner farmer. Nate and his wife, Angie, have implemented practices and enhancements through the CSP program. From this program, Nate has adopted forage management, prescribed grazing, pest management, nutrient management, and reduced till. They have recently started planting tree belts to protect their cattle and farmstead. Thank you, Nate & Angie, for your dedication to the conservation of our natural resources.

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The JRSCD is currently taking orders on trees for spring 2024. The first orders have already been placed with nurseries – the earlier orders are submitted, the better the availability of species. If you want assistance to plan a tree planting or trees to plant your own, get in quick so staff can get those ordered for you.

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EQIP batching ended for the regular signup. That doesn’t mean there still are not opportunities available though. If you wanted to signup up for one of the climate smart practices, the IRA EQIP has available funds, with three batching runs, from March to May. With those applications, a new cost list has been received with a lot of the core practices receiving an increase in cost share. Standouts for those are cover crops which is cost shared at $76.93/acre ($92.31/acre beginning farmer). There are many other different projects NRCS can provide cost share for and with the increase in funding, there is no better time than now to sign up for EQIP.

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The CSP timeline was just released. If you were thinking about signing up for CSP, the deadline to signup is March 1st, 2024. CSP is a 5-year contract which is like EQIP but all the land that you operate is enrolled into the contract whereas EQIP you can pick what land you operate that you would like to sign up. It’s a very good steppingstone to get into if you currently have an EQIP contract or had an EQIP contract and wish to continue implementing conservation on the land you operate.

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If you wish to signup for either of these programs or have any questions about any other programs, you can stop by the office, and we can go over our many programs we have and see what would work for you and your operation. Winter is usually the least busy time to meet up with us and schedule a meeting because there aren’t many signups going on and we can get a head start on possibly planning a contract for you.

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Dates to Remember:

• December 13th- SCD Beard Meeting, Conference Room. USDA Service Center, 8 am

• December 25th – Office closed, Christmas Day

• January 1st – Office closed, New Year’s Day

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For more information contact the James River Soil Conservation District and Ellendale NRCS office at 349-3653, ext. 3. Our field office is in Ellendale at 51 N. 1st Street. Also, remember to visit the James River Soil Conservation District Facebook page and our websites for more information –http://www.jamesriverscd.org/ and http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/nd/home/. The NRCS is an equal opportunity employer, provider and lender.