Madison County Democrat

Soil Bank Base Called Important In New Program

Columbus—After you sign a contract to participate in the conservation reserve program your county ASC committee will establish a "soil bank base" for your farm.

This base is an important figure to remember, since it determines what you can and can't do under the program and also what your rate of payments will be. Your farm soil bank base is the acreage eligible for conservation reserve at the full payment rate. This rate will average about $12 an acre a year in Ohio. The base includes all land growing what generally are considered soil depleting crops.

Land in acreage reserve is a part of the farm soil bank base, but it is not eligible for conservation reserve payments.

The principle soil bank base crops in Ohio are corn, all small grains, soybeans, field peas and beans, tobacco, vegetables for fresh marketing or processing, potatoes, sugar beets and annual grasses where the seed is harvested.

Your farm soil bank base for 1957 will be determined by adding your total acreage of soil bank base crops in 1955 and 1956 to the number of acres you had in acreage reserve in 1956 and dividing by two.

If weather conditions prevented you from planting all your soil bank base crops in the years preceding your signing of a conservation reserve contract, some adjustments are possible. These adjustments can be made upward or downward for (1) abnormal weather, or (2) change in rotation. In both the established cropping pattern will be considered by your county ASC committee.

The acres of soil bank base crops you can harvest in any year is the farm soil bank base minus the acreage you placed in conservation reserve at the regular payment rate. These are your "permitted acres." Land you place in acreage reserve in any year of your conservation reserve contract is not charged against the permitted acreage.

For example, if you have a farm soil bank base of 89 acres and you place 10 acres in conservation reserve, your permitted acreage is 79 acres. If your farm soil bank base is 100 acres and you designate 15 acres for the conservation reserve and 10 acres for acreage reserve your permitted acreage is 85 acres providing there are at least 10 acres of additional eligible land.

You can place rotated meadow land not included in your farm soil bank base in conservation reserve, but you won't receive the full payment for it. Instead, you'll receive payment at a "non-diversion rate," which is 30 percent of your full county rental rate.