Home » Conservation » Deadline Nearing for Crop Stubble Incentives

Deadline Nearing for Crop Stubble Incentives

NGPC LogoThe Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is reminding landowners that they have until June 1 to enroll in a program that pays for keeping wheat and milo stubble tall during this year’s harvest.

Last year, the Nebraska Environmental Trust awarded $1.5 million to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to enroll tall wheat and milo stubble into the Crop Stubble Management, Wildlife and Water Conservation Program over three years. This is the second year of the grant.

The program is being offered in the Upper Niobrara-White, North Platte, South Platte, Twin Platte, Upper Republican, Middle Republican, Tri-Basin and Lower Republican natural resource districts in southern and western Nebraska.

Producers within the project area may receive $10 per acre to leave wheat and/or milo stubble 14 inches or taller undisturbed until April 1 of the following year. Eligible producers may enroll up to 320 acres per year per crop type for two years. Post-harvest chemical applications are allowed but other means of disturbance – such as disking, grazing or haying – are not allowed before the April 1 deadline. Public hunting access is not required to enroll. An additional incentive of $3 per acre is available to producers willing to allow walk-in hunting access on their stubble fields.

Tall, undisturbed stubble has been shown to provide multiple wildlife benefits to pheasants, quail and other wildlife from the end of summer through winter. Tall stubble provides additional agricultural and economic benefits by collecting and conserving soil moisture through catching snow, shading the ground and reducing erosion. There also is potential for higher yields of subsequent crops in a crop rotation.

Applications are available at Game and Parks, NRD or Natural Resources Conservation Service offices. Interested producers also may contact the nearest Nebraska Game and Parks Commission representative on this list.

Alma: John Laux, 308-928-2541

Kearney: Justin Haahr, 308-865-5308

North Platte: Adam Kester, 308-535-8025

Chadron: Shelley Steffl, 308-432-6183

Alliance: Matt Steffl, 308-763-2940

Funding for the Trust grants comes from revenue from the Nebraska Lottery.

About Justin Haag

Justin Haag has served the Commission as a public information officer in the Panhandle since 2013. His duties include serving as regional editor for NEBRASKAland Magazine. Haag was raised in southwestern Nebraska, where he developed a love for fishing, hunting and other outdoor pursuits. After earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Chadron State College in 1996, he worked four years as an editor and reporter at newspapers in Chadron and McCook. Prior to joining the Commission in 2013, he worked 12 years as a communicator at Chadron State, serving as the institution’s media and public relations coordinator the last five. He and his wife, Cricket, live in Chadron, and have two children.

Check Also

RainbowTroutHead

Ogallala Tagged Trout

As you know the Lake Ogallala fishery was renovated last fall, Lake Ogallala Renovation.  Rainbow …