Wildlife groups and cattle producer associations are describing a compromise court ruling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s critical feed program as a victory for their members.
On July 24, U.S. District Court judge John C. Coughenour ruled that the critical feed program could go ahead but only for producers who signed up for the program before July 8. The program is a USDA plan to open up 24 million acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land for haying and grazing.
The land is also open to U.S. grain farmers if they can prove they spent more than $4,500 preparing for the haying or grazing of CRP acres. For all other producers, the CRP land will remain closed.
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The National Wildlife Fund (NWF), which filed a lawsuit against the USDA program in late June, said the decision was a good one for ducks and other waterfowl.
“It’s a win from a conservation prospective, that we took an illegal program and we shut it down,” said Tom France, the NWF’s lead counsel for the case.
The NWF claimed that the USDA had not assessed the environmental impact of the critical feed program on nesting birds.
Coughenour’s ruling was a follow-up to a July 8 court decision that put a temporary restraining order on the program.
According to the NWF, the latest decision means ranchers can now hay or graze two million of the CRP acres.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president Andy Groseta said opening those acres is a victory for ranchers.
“This was the right decision for America’s cattle producers.”
