The Conservation Stewardship Program, or CSP, is a reward-based program that derives points from existing conservation activities as well as the agreement to implement new enhancements or conservation activities over a five-year contract period.

These points translate into dollars per acre that range anywhere from $15 to $25 per acre, per year.

This program has been pretty successful in the county in recent years and is a good way to supplement income and get rewarded for being good, conservation-minded managers.

It was recently announced by our chief that we will be undergoing a major overhaul in the program where we’ll do away with the current ranking system and enhancement list and develop a new points-based system along with a new payment system. This overhaul will shape the program more so like EQIP, our main funding program where each conservation practice has an incentive payment tied to it.

These changes put a large question mark on the direction of the program, however, there is still time to sign up under the current evaluation system.

There are several enhancements currently available that are very cost-effective, easy to implement and can save you money. Some of the more popular ones include nitrogen testing for corn, whether it’s tested early season so that topdressing can be adjusted, or late season where you can document the season-long nitrogen use by the crop.

When done correctly, these tests can have significant impacts on fertilizer inputs, especially this year where above normal spring rains can wash most, if not all, spring applied nitrogen away before the plant can utilize it.

GPS-guided sprayer technology, while it seems like it could be expensive, has several economical retrofit units that work well. Unlike a factory-installed GPS guidance system, the retrofit systems can only control sections of the sprayer boom but does control lane guidance to minimize overlap.

These retrofit units can be moved to various pieces of equipment, too, to aid in crop planting and fertilizer application.

A few have been implemented and with the prices we have seen they are very economical to install and the payback is fairly quick.

Other popular enhancements include converting to drift reducing sprayer tips and nitrogen applications.

If you’d like to learn more about CSP or to sign up, feel free to contact our office for more details.

Andy Gaver is a conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Butler County.