Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this week announced during this month, USDA will distribute approximately $1.6 billion in annual Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) rental payments and $3.8 billion in final 2010 direct payments to America’s farmers and ranchers.

“October is an important production month because CRP rental payments, direct and counter-cyclical payments (DCP), and now Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) payments are paid during this first month of the Federal fiscal year,” Vilsack said in a USDA report. “These funds support the agricultural economy and responsible stewardship of America’s production acreage.”

Beginning Monday, farmers holding 744,000 CRP contracts on 416,000 farms will receive an average of $52.56 per acre in CRP rental payments. Producers earn an average of $3,955 per farm enrolled in CRP. Included in the totals are 402,000 contracts (4.6 million acres) for continuous CRP enrollments and 342,000 contracts (26.7 million acres) enrolled under general CRP sign-ups. 

• See a table of enrollments by state, number of contracts, number of farms, acres enrolled as of the end of the 2010 fiscal year and CRP projected rental payments for fiscal year 2011.

Beginning next Tuesday, final direct payments for the DCP and ACRE programs will be made to more than 1.1 million producers on 1.7 million farms enrolled in these programs. Participants in DCP or ACRE had the option of receiving a 22 percent advance direct payment when the farm was enrolled or delaying the direct payment until after the end of the fiscal year. ACRE revenue payments are scheduled to be made at a later time.

For more information on CRP, DCP or ACRE, producers should contact their local FSA office or visit FSA's website.