COLUMBUS, Ohio — Pastures in Ohio have taken a beating with the unusually dry summer. Many livestock producers who rely on them to graze animals used “sacrifice pasture lots” to confine grazing animals to protect a majority of their pastures from damage.

Sacrifice pasture lots are extremely susceptible to soil erosion from overgrazing.

Nutrients from manure and soil captured in runoff also pose a potential threat to water bodies.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has designed a way to help producers address this issue through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

EQIP provides farmers with incentive payments and technical assistance for conservation activities that help limit soil erosion, improve water and air quality and protect wildlife habitat.

It is a voluntary conservation program administered by NRCS to support production agriculture and environmental quality as compatible goals.

Now through Dec. 7, livestock producers who used sacrifice pasture lots during the 2007 grazing season can apply for EQIP to receive a $127.56 per-acre incentive payment for reseeding these pastures.

A maximum of 10 percent of the total permanent pasture – up to a 20-acre maximum – is eligible for this payment. Producer eligibility criteria include:

•Having used one “sacrifice” area for at least 60 days as a supplemental feeding area

•Having a minimum of 20 acres of permanent pasture

•Providing a Farm Plan Map that identifies existing pastures and designated sacrifice areas, along with their acreages

•A current soil test of the sacrificed area dated by Dec. 7 (“current” meaning fewer than five years old)

•Ability to plant a permanent seeding by the end of the 2008 spring planting season

In addition, producers must meet the eligibility for EQIP – any producer engaged in livestock or crop production on cropland. Eligible land includes cropland, rangeland, pastureland, private non-industrial forestland and other farm or ranch lands as determined by the USDA secretary.

For more information or to apply for EQIP and the reseeding incentive, contact a local NRCS Office or USDA Service Center. Information is also available online at www.oh.nrcs.usda.gov/pro grams/eqip/eqip2008.html