Farm Bill Legislation: The NRCS

For this assignment, students were asked to focus on and discuss one narrow attribute of Farm Bill expenditures. Of the many pieces of the pie when it comes to Farm Bill spending, I chose to focus on a very small piece of that pie. Coming in at a meager 7%, on the pie chart you will notice the "conservation" allotment. What does conservation have to do with Farm Bill funding and agriculture?

Well, my first experience with the Farm Bill in regards to conservation that I can recall came when I was about 14 years old, through a USDA agency called the "Natural Resources Conservation Service" of NRCS for short. The loan came actually came more directly from a sub-branch of the NRCS called the "Farm Service Agency" or FSA. At 14 year old, I heard about a youth program in which eligible and approved youth could apply for agricultural loans up to $5,000 to fund their own agricultural operations. Upon learning of this, my step father suggested to me that it would actually be easier for me to get this type of loan than it would be for himself, and that we could increase our cattle operation by doing so. So, at 14, I applied for the loan, from what I can recall a very lengthy process, but it did educate me a great deal about loans, the stipulations of being approved and paying them off, interest rates, and even record keeping and developing business plans. With $5,000 I bought 8 pair of young cows with calves from a local rancher and began my own cattle business. I made my loan payment each fall with all of the income from the sale of my calves. It would be a few years before I would actually pocket any of these profits. Today it still amazes me that an agency such as this would take on such a risky loan investment in a young man such as myself.

Shane Kerner, Idaho FSA Youth Loan Recipient http://fsa.blogs.govdelivery.com/2013/08/29/from-an-idaho-youth-loan-to-national-youth-leader/

A Panguitch "flood irrigated" farm

Later in life, I was able to see the conservation side of the NRCS drastically affect farmers and ranchers along the Sevier River in southern Utah for the good. Specifically in Panguitch, where I lived during high school, the agency made a big push to encourage farmers to move away from "flood irrigating" to installing and utilizing more efficient pressurized irrigation, using pipes and sprinkler lines. Flood irrigating involved utilizing canals and ditches to get water to the fields, then simply allowing the water to run down "furrows", or rows through the field. Under this old practice, much water is lost through leeching through the ground through the canals, as well as loss due to evaporation. Sprinklers allow an cased environment for water to be delivered, resulting in less water wasted. Farmers were allowed to apply for grants and loans for the funding to convert to these pressurized systems. Many farmers in the Panguitch valley utilized those funds to install pivot sprinkler lines. Those that could not find the means to make sprinklers usable were able to receive funding to install pipelines to deliver canal water to their properties, and gated pipes to the fields to minimize water loss during delivery. Water then is still allowed to run over the field.

Panguitch fields that have been converted to pressurized irrigation. http://utahspatchworkparkway.com/panguitch.html

*I was not able to obtain any source information about irrigation grant work done in Utah, but have cited a source of this type of work being conducted in California. See "citations" at the end of this post.*


While I knew these things about conservation programs such as the NRCS, there are things I did not know about the program and it's funding. For example, the program also uses it's funding to provide relief to loss that farmers face from drought, crop disease, pests, etc., as well as assistance in many other ways to improve their lands besides just through irrigation means. The NRCS also provides easement programs that are designed to help landowners conserve not only their working famrlands, but also wetlands and forested lands. They also provide landscape planning to help people manage natural resource problems and to manage those resources in accordance to "economic, social, and ecological considerations to meet public and private needs". (NRCS California)

NRCS (Alabama) Pine Plantation. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/al/programs/?cid=nrcs141p2_023019

I knew the NRCS worked a lot with other federal agencies (such as the US Forest Service that I work for), however I was not aware that Farm Bill funding made that work possible until this week. Just days ago I learned that a future timber sale on the Ashley National Forest (if approved per environmental process called NEPA) will be made possible through funding provided by the Farm Bill by way of the NRCS. Quite often I think we tend to forget that timber harvest truly is a form of agriculture.

I would dare say I am just scratching the surface of the different ways that the Farm Bill provides to conservation. I definitely know that there are a lot more unknowns to me when it comes to the Farm Bill than what I do know about the work that it does.

Sources Cited:

NRCS Main Page/Farm Bill:
 http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/farmbill/

 NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program
 http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/programs/financial/csp/?cid=stelprdb1242683

FSA Youth Loans
 http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=paca&topic=you

NRCS (California) News Release:
 http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/ca/newsroom/?cid=nrcs144p2_064274

USDA Water Quality Information Center/Irrigation:
 http://wqic.nal.usda.gov/irrigation-1