Stutsman County has the highest total acreage idled under CRP with 179,991. Nelson County has 114,004 acres idled which is the second highest in the state.

The average CRP rental rate in the U.S. for the sixteenth sign up was $45.15 per acre. This is $3.53 per acre below the estimated average cash rental rate. North Dakota's average CRP rental rate was $32.67 per acre, only $0.28 below the estimated average rate for cash rent. Only three other states, California, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, had CRP rental rates closer to cash rent than North Dakota.

The average size farm in North Dakota is about 2,000 acres. 3.89 million acres of CRP would handle almost 2,000 farm families. It is no wonder why our farm population is decreasing.

I heard a very disturbing statistic last week. North Dakota has only 16% as many youth age seventeen and under living in rural areas as it had 30 years ago. It is not hard to figure out why young and old are exiting rural North Dakota with land use policies like CRP.

I will finish before I become too emotionally involved. We know some people have turned to CRP as a last resort. We understand and respect those economic decisions. I wonder how long a society that pays its citizens to do nothing (as is the case in CRP) can last. Imagine what the nearly $2 Billion dollar annual CRP payment could do if invested in value added agriculture, roads, bridges, river or rail transportation.

American agriculture will never be prosperous if she invests her assets in non revenue generating ventures like CRP.