The deadline to get involved in the Conservation Reserve Program is this Friday, February 28. Agricultural producers and private landowners need to make an offer of acres or schedule an appointment to do so with their local USDA service center by Friday. The signup first opened in December and is available to producers and private landowners who are either offering acres for the first time or re-offering acres for another 10-15 year term in the Farm Service Agency’s conservation program. “Call your FSA county office today to make an appointment to sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program,” says FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce. “As long as you have an appointment scheduled, your CRP offer will be able to compete in this general signup, even if the appointment is in the first week of March. This is the first opportunity for general signup since 2016 and we want to make sure interested producers and landowners take advantage of the popular conservation program.” Farmers and ranchers who enroll land in CRP receive yearly rental payments for voluntarily establishing long-term, resource-conserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees, which are called “covers.” CRP currently has about 22 million acres enrolled, but the fiscal cap for 2020 is 24.5 million acres.