State Technical Committee Meeting - USDA



Executive Summary

State Technical Committee Meeting

October 31, 2013

|Item |Decision |

|State Technical Committee Meeting Minutes from November 8, 2012 |Not available at this time. |

|WRP Sub-Committee recommended using the CSR point per dollars for GARC as the new process and |Approved |

|review it annually. John made the motion to use this new process and review it annually, Sean | |

|seconded the motion. The entire State Technical Committee concurred to use the new process. | |

|WRP Sub-Committee recommended the funds be divided as 45%-pothole; 45%-riverine; |Approved |

|10%-historically underserved. John made the motion to continue with this allocation of funds, | |

|Steve seconded, motion carried. | |

|John shared they need to market the prairie pothole area for applications. There was some |Jan Glendening, Sarah Carlson |

|detailed discussion from the group. Larry mentioned if there were individuals interested in | |

|serving on this sub-committee to promote WRP in the prairie pothole region contact Jay Mar, | |

|Shelly Grimmius, or Larry Beeler. | |

|EQIP Sub-Committee recommends applications with a small expansion of ag waste facilities up to |Approved |

|25% of the existing resource concern would be considered for funding. As part of this | |

|discussion the committee would recommend that applications for grass based livestock systems | |

|(grazing applications) should have a higher or equal ranking score to Ag Waste Facility | |

|applications. | |

|EQIP Sub-Committee recommend that in the Energy Initiative for the scenario related to replacing|Approved |

|old grain dry motors with high efficiency motors, that to be eligible the old motor should be | |

|decommissioned. This would be similar to closing a feedlot for an Ag Waste Facility. | |

|EQIP Sub-Committee recommends the following FY14 allocations for these state wide sub-accounts: |Approved |

|~ Forestry/Wildlife fund Code - $500,000 | |

|~ Tribal Sub-Account - $100,000 | |

|~ State CIG - $800,000 | |

|~ Limited Resource Farmers - $200,000 | |

|EQIP Sub-committee recommends the following FY14 allocation for the Wildlife Sub-Account: |Approved |

|~ Forestry Habitat – 30% | |

|~ Grassland Habitat – 30% | |

|~ Riverine Habitat – 20% | |

|~ Wildlife Habitat Management – 20% | |

|Bruce Barnhart asked on the possibility for cost-share for irrigation, such as center pivots. |Larry Beeler will provide this information to the appropriate venues |

| |and provide an update to the group. |

| |The State Technical Committee Meeting minutes from today’s meeting will|

| |be out in 30 days. |

State Technical Committee Meeting

Neal Smith Federal Building

NRCS Conference Room 693

Des Moines, Iowa

October 31, 2013

1:00 p.m.

MINUTES

Present: Jay Mar, State Conservationist, Aaron Lumley for Paul Tauke and Steve Hopkins, IDNR; Doug Helmers, FWS; Rick Robinson, Farm Bureau; Susan Heathcote, Iowa Environmental Council; Francis Thicke, Dairy Farmer/Producer; Kelly Tobin, SSCC/Producer; John Whitaker, FSA; Mike Sexton, Iowa Pork Producers Association and Technical Service Providers Network (TSPN); Jim Gillespie, IDALS-DSC; Joe McGovern, INHF; Matt O’Connor, Pheasants Forever; Brad Riphagen for Shannon Ramsey, Trees Forever; Sean McMahon and Jan Glendening, TNC; Clare Lindahl, CDI; Greg Thessen, NASS; Sarah Carlson for Teresa Opheim, Practical Farmers of Iowa; Bruce Barnhart, LICA; and Warren Johnson, Iowa League of RC&D.

Others not members: Dave Beck, Iowa League of RC&D; Todd Bogenschultz, IDNR; Marian Gelb, INHF; Larry Beeler, Allen Gehring, Jon Hubbert, Paul Goldsmith, Rick Bednarek, Marty Adkins, Sindra Jensen, and Shelly Grimmius, NRCS.

Welcome/Opening Comments – Jay Mar

Jay Mar thanked Sarah Carlson for bringing in a cover crop radish. Jay also thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. Jay mentioned this meeting is being digitally recorded. Jay shared the representation on the State Technical Committee is very important so NRCS will have the appropriate input from all across the board to help producers conserve the resources and be sustainable in agricultural production.

NRCS has an interim allocation based on keeping the agency running and handling prior year contracts. The allocation provides funding until January 15. At that time, Congress will have to come up with more funds or the government will go through another shutdown, which we all hope doesn’t happen again. Jay shared details of the situation with the government shutdown, Farm Bill programs, inclement weather issues, etc. to have a perfect storm.

Jay stated that face to face State Technical Committee Meeting will be held on a more regular basis. Unfortunately, we had issues with our business tools so the minutes are not available at this time. They will be provided and posted on the Iowa website.

Farm Bill Programs

Larry stated some agenda items will be looking at recommendation from the State Technical Committee to NRCS on how Iowa should implement the programs. Larry provided back ground how the sub-committees work out the details of the program and brings back recommendations to the entire group.

WRP Sub-Committee – John Whitaker

Recommendations on Geographic Area Rate Cap – Handouts - 1) Iowa WRP GARC Map/Iowa SRP Fair Market Survey Analysis ($/CSR Point-2014) 2) FY2012 GARC-Market Analysis. John mentioned the sub-committee took a different approach this year. The corn suitability rate (CSR) is the approach Iowa uses for high, medium, and low. The sub-committee used dollar per CSR point in value. John provided details of the maps and discussion. There was a detailed discussion on the GARC. The sub-committee recommends using this new way to use the per point of CSR for future WRP applicants and the sub-committee would review this process annually. John made the motion to use this new process and review it annually, Sean seconded the motion. The entire State Technical Committee concurred to use the new process.

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John mentioned they are starting to see structures on GIS maps on WRP easements such as tree stands and blinds.

The sub-committee recommended the funds be divided as 45 percent pothole, 45 percent riverine, 10 percent historically underserved for state allotment. John made the motion to continue with this allocation of funds, Steve seconded, motion carried. John shared they need to market the prairie pothole area for applications. There was some detailed discussion from the group.

Larry mentioned if there were individuals interested in serving on this sub-committee to promote WRP in the prairie pothole region contact Jay Mar, Shelly Grimmius, or Larry Beeler. Jan Glendening asked to be on the sub-committee. John mentioned that Iowa no longer has a backlog of WRP applications.

EQIP Sub-Committee - Doug Helmers

Doug provided details on the minutes from the EQIP Sub-Committee Meeting on August 6, 2013which was provided to the group (see attached). There were 12 new CIG applications for the $800,000 allocated for FY13.

The EQIP Sub-Committee recommends applications with a small expansion of ag waste facilities would be considered for funding only after the applications for existing resource concerns are funded. As part of this discussion the committee would recommend that applications for grass based livestock systems (grazing applications) should have a higher or equal ranking score to Ag Waste Facility applications. There was a detailed discussion from the group. Steve made the motion to accept the recommendation, Sarah seconded, motion carried.

EQIP Sub-Committee recommend that in the Energy Initiative for the scenario related to replacing old grain dry motors with high efficiency motors, that to be eligible the old motor should be decommissioned. This would be similar to closing a feedlot for an Ag Waste Facility. Mike Sexton made a motion to accept the recommendation, Susan Heathcote seconded, motion carried.

The EQIP Sub-Committee recommends the following FY14 allocations for these state wide sub-accounts:

~ Forestry/Wildlife fund Code - $500,000

~ Tribal Sub-Account - $100,000

~ State CIG - $800,000

~ Limited Resource Farmers - $200,000

The EQIP Sub-committee recommends the following FY14 allocation for the Wildlife Sub-Account:

~ Forestry Habitat – 30%

~ Grassland Habitat – 30%

~ Riverine Habitat – 20%

~ Wildlife Habitat Management – 20%

Clare Lindahl made a motion to accept the both recommendation, Steve Hopkins seconded, motion carried.

FY13 Farm Bill Report - Larry Beeler

Larry provided details on the October 2013 NRCS-Iowa At-a-Glance showing the FY13 Program Accomplishments and the on-going program accomplishments.

Jay shared these accomplishments are due to all of us working together as partners to get conservation on the land.

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Larry also shared in the current fiscal year as we look at the different programs that are presently authorized to work (funds provided), NRCS can work on prior year contracts or easements for all the different programs. This would include Conservation Stewardship Program and Conservation Security Program payments. NRCS cannot work on new WRP and GRP applications until a new Farm Bill is passed or an extension of the existing Farm Bill.

NRCS provided financial assistance to producers to apply practices according to NRCS standards and specifications. There are times NRCS talks about a percent of cost-share. NRCS bases the payment schedules on a percent of cost-share but it’s not a straight 50 or 75 percent. The payment schedules are almost completed and ready for approval as a regional basis and will be available online.

NRCS has national, state and local ranking criteria and practice efficiency of the ranking. For the total points, 25 percent in the ranking process come out of the national set of questions; 40 percent are state related questions; 25 percent are local and the practice efficiency is 10 percent.

There was a detailed discussion on these issues with the group.

“New” Farm Bill Update - Larry Beeler

Larry shared information on the two versions of the Farm Bill. This was the House/Senate version and Title II which is the Conservation Title. EQIP and WHIP will be consolidated with specific percentage of EQIP funds going to WHIP practices. WRP, FRPP, and GRP will be consolidated into an working lands program with two components. Regional Conservation Partnership Program will replace the CCPI. The RCPP is working with entities and agency to develop and implement plans. Larry provided additional details on the potential future Farm Bill.

Building Ponds for Irrigation Purposes – Bruce Barnhart

Bruce shared one of his customers asked him some questions on center pivots being a cost-share practice. Bruce contacted Paul Goldsmith, NRCS EQIP Coordinator, and found that this is not an approved practice. You can build a pond for grade stabilization structure and use it for irrigation. You can build a pond for livestock watering but cannot cost share on irrigation. Bruce shared this is some to look into. There are two components 1) Iowa is not depleting our ground waters and 2) the Nutrient Reduction Strategy. A pond will not be as effective as reducing nitrates as a wetland but its still going to have some affect. If Iowa was involved and have a say in how the design of the pond, there could be more shallow water encouraged or maybe there could be a way that they would be more effective in chemical reduction. Would this be a possibility? There was a detailed discussion. Jay mentioned this is something we would really have to look into dealing with the resource concerns. Larry stated this should be shared with the Science and Technology Committee along with the EQIP Sub-Committee; there are some programmatic issues related eligibility for irrigation practices. This needs technical review as far as feasibility and programmatic review. Larry will provide this information to the appropriate venue and provide an update to the group.

CRP Update – John Whitaker

John shared the general CRP sign-up this year was 50 percent of expiring contracts but that doesn’t include the fact that a fair amount of the contract expiring went back into the Highly Erodible Land Initiative (HELI). Iowa came out very well with the amount of allotted acres. There were several contracts in specific areas that went over our cap because this year FSA went back and implemented a cap on the total bid on a general sign-up. The cap was $240 an acre. There were some individuals that could say I make enough points to go into HELI and get $260, why would I want to risk a bid, which used a lot of HEL land. FSA ended up putting HEL acres instead of buffer strips. John provided additional details. There was a significant increase in the rental rates this year. They didn’t do a reassessment of the rental rates in FY12 and FSA is doing a reassessment this year which bumped the rental rated immensely in a lot of counties, some 30-35 percent higher.

Soil Health Activities – Rick Bednarek

Rick shared he has been around the state to talk about soil health during field days, area meetings, training NRCS and partner employees. Ray Archuleta along with Dave Brandt was here last year providing training in Denison, Ames, and Cedar Rapids. The training has been a huge success. Ray Archuleta will be returning to Iowa in April 2014 to provide Soil Health Level II training. Iowa NRCS is going to establish Soil Health Teams in each Area and State Office. This will be a train the trainer for the teams then they will go out and train the rest of the employees and partners. Iowa NRCS has a fair enough equipment such as soil penetrometers that test for compaction, no-till and conventional till for every field, area, and State Office. Murray High School students put together Soil Health buckets for all field, area, and State Office. We have 2 table top run off, rain fall simulator test. Iowa NRCS will be receiving 2 rainfall simulators that is pulled on a trailer. Rick provided additional details on activities and equipment.

NRCS Practice Standards and Specifications – Allen Gehring

Allen shared NRCS has 120-140 practice standards. NRCS policy states NRCS reviews practice standards on a five year rotation. Iowa NRCS usually have 30 practice standards a year to review by technical experts with input from field staff. Once Iowa has a final product (draft standard), we post it on our website for a 30 day period minimum, sometimes longer depending on the practice. Go to the Iowa NRCS webpage, select Practice Standards, located line with Draft Standards. The standards are posted there for review. We are in the process to add another column to enable individuals to enter their name, affiliate, and email address, we would add the individuals to an email distribution list for notifications of new draft standards that are out for review with the link. There was some discussion on process.

Ecological Sciences – Marty Adkins

Marty shared information on current issues on cover crops. Barb Stewart said this year has been very busy with cover crops. Iowa has close to 300,000 acres or more going into cover crops. There is a new termination guideline which she provided to the group, titled NRCS Cover Crop Termination Guidelines – Non-Irrigated Cropland, June 2013. This is the national guideline developed with concurrence of NRCS, FSA and RMA. It is science based on rainfall uses throughout the United States. In Iowa, we are in two zones, they are Zone 3 which is in western third part of the state, Zone 4 is the rest of the state. We do have very limited guidelines for cover crop termination. Zone 3, we can terminate the cover crops right up to the time of planting. Zone 4, we can terminate the cover crops five days after planting but before emergence. This will provide more flexibility in the state then we had before. Barb provided addition details from the document she provided. There was a detailed discussion from the group.

Marty Adkins provided a brief overview of the process for the 590 standard. Eric Hurley provided an update on the 590 standard Nutrient Management. Eric provided a copy of the official Iowa standard and shared information on the yellow highlighted paragraphs. Eric went over the high points of the 590 standard in detail. There was a detailed discussion from the group.

Closing Comments – Jay Mar

Jay shared in the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) Iowa wasn’t able to obligate funds for this program. FSA and NRCS would like to promote GRP for landowners. Jay also stressed the need for producers to really look at the ranking criterion for EQIP, 25 percent of the points are controlled by the local led working group. Jay also mentioned he signed the Technical Service Providers Network MOU and looking for opportunities for TSP to help NRCS get the boots on the grounds.

Jay also thanked everyone for their input and contributions to the discussions today. This is very beneficial and we will have more face to face meetings.

Steve Hopkins provided a copy of Working for Clean Water – 2012 Iowa Watershed Successes. This is an annual watershed success stories Iowa DNR publishes. It highlights different pieces around the state identifying lakes, rivers, or other types of conservation practices and funding sources.

MEETING MINUTES

State Technical Committee, EQIP Sub-Committee

Conference Call from Federal Building, Conference Room 693B

1:00 p.m. August 6, 2013

Present: Doug Helmers-USFWS, Mike Sexton–IPP, Paul Tauke-IDNR, Jim Gillespie-IDALS,

Leah Medley-EPA, Linda Kinman-IA Association of Water Agencies, Matthew Fisher-TNC,

Susan Heathcote-IA Environmental Council, and via phone Kevin Anderson-IDNR and Sarah Carlson-PFI. Staff advisors/assistance: Larry Beeler, Paul Goldsmith

1. Review of FY2013 EQIP – There was a handout and review of the allocation of EQIP funds for FY2013. Sarah Carlson raised a question to look at the number of participants as part of this report to assess the total number of participants assisted by the program. There was a handout of tentatively accepted State CIG’s that was reviewed. There were 12 applications for the IA CIG’s. Official announcements will be made after the National CIG’s have been announced. Sarah Carlson is concerned that this delay will affect the first year’s schedule for some of the CIG’s that have cover crops planned for this fall. EQIP funding trends over the last 5 years for several major practices was reviewed.

2. EQIP Sub-accounts – There was a committee discussion on the number of EQIP Sub-accounts in Iowa. Presently there are 41 National Sub-accounts, 10 State Sub-accounts and 258 local Sub-accounts (down from 311 in 2012). The National Office is encouraging consolidating Sub-accounts to reduce administrative workload. Some questions were raised about who makes decisions on the Sub-accounts. The Local Work Group helps to identify and prioritize local resource issues. Mike Sexton pointed out that local Sub-accounts are important to address local resource concerns. Sarah Carlson suggested there should be a survey of the local working groups to see how involved they are in the process. No decision was made at this time.

3. Payment Rates – Paul Goldsmith brought up to the sub-committee the possibility of using different payment rates for different practices. Typically when we identify an initiative project we automatically go to the higher payment rate for all practices in this project area. It would be a more efficient use of funds to prioritize practices that provide the best resource impact at the higher rate and lesser practices that may be more readily accepted at the normal lower rate. Some Board members were supportive of identifying practices that would be highly beneficial within a project area and these having a higher payment rate. Also, a bundling of practices that provide a higher resource protection with a higher payment rate was supported as a way to be more efficient with funds. No final decision was made at this time.

4. Treating Existing Resource Concerns – Paul Goldsmith reviewed the history of EQIP financial assistance on Ag Waste Facilities. Early on Financial Assistance was available for Treating existing resource concerns, expansion and new construction. After several years new construction was not allowed as this is a production decision. In recent years there has been an increase in the average cost of Ag Waste Facilities with some expansion being involved in most applications. At present Iowa rules have no limitation on the amount of expansion that could be part of an application. The EQIP manual states financial assistance can be used to treat existing resource concerns. The committee had a lengthy discussion on providing financial assistance for expansion of existing Ag Waste Facilities while treating the resource concern. The committee agreed that the top priority for financial assistance for Ag Waste Facilities should be for applications to treat the existing resource concern. If the application includes small expansion, up to 25% of the existing resource concern, either the prescreening tool or the ranking should have lower points to reflect a small expansion. The applications with small expansion would be considered for funding only after the applications for existing resource concerns are funded. As part of this discussion the committee would recommend that applications for grass based livestock systems (grazing applications) should have a higher or equal ranking score to Ag Waste Facility applications.

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The Committee also had discussion on applications in the Energy Initiative and when there is expansion. The Committee recommends allowing a similar, small expansion (up to 25%), similar to livestock applications. The Committee would also recommend that in the Energy Initiative for the scenario related to replacing old grain dry motors with high efficiency motors, that to be eligible the old motor should be decommissioned. This would be similar to closing a feedlot for an Ag Waste Facility.

5. The Sub-Committee recommends the following FY2014 EQIP allocations for these state wide sub-accounts.

|EQIP State Wide Sub-Accounts |FY2013 Original Obligation |FY2014 Recommendation |

|Forestry/Wildlife Fund Code |$500,000 |$500,000 |

|Tribal Sub-account |$100,000 |$100,000 |

|State CIG |$800,000 |$800,000 |

|Limited Resource Farmers |$200,000 |$200,000 |

6. The Sub-Committee recommends the following allocations for the Wildlife Sub Accounts for FY 2014.

|Wildlife Sub-Accounts |FY2013 Percentages |FY2014 Recommendation |

|Forestry Habitat |30% |30% |

|Grassland Habitat |30% |30% |

|Riverine Habitat |20% |20% |

|Wildlife Habitat Management |20% |20% |

7. Batching Dates – Paul Goldsmith informed the Sub Committee that the tentative plan is to have 3 batching dates for FY2014, probably in October, January and April. The Sub Committee recommended when this is decided to let them know and publicize these dates. Paul indicated that once these dates are finalized these will be placed on the EQIP website.

Meeting adjourned at 3:05pm.

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