AMT410- Iowa County Takes Farmland - Using the letter of the law, they basically declared I have no farmland | As a Man Thinketh

County strips farmer of Land Use "farmland simply disappears"
Richard Fee’s 50 acres in Scott County, Iowa, were reclassified out of “agricultural,” triggering much higher taxes. The county points to recent years: no visible row crops or livestock, a rebuilt home and pond, and 21 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Fee says he still produces (about 6 acres of hay) and that enrolling acreage in CRP was good stewardship encouraged by the feds. The clash sits at a gnarly intersection: Iowa’s “present, primary, for-profit use” test vs. USDA’s conservation incentives.
For more than three decades, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has been sold to the public as an environmental initiative—retiring fragile farmland to protect soil, water, and wildlife. But for working farmers, CRP can be more than a conservation badge; it can be an investment in the long-term productivity of their ground. By resting marginal acres from row cropping, planting perennial covers, and building soil organic matter, CRP allows the land to recover structure, fertility, and resilience that years of continuous production have worn thin. When those acres return to rotation, they often yield better than before, require fewer inputs, and are less prone to erosion or nutrient loss. In a time when every acre must pull its weight, CRP can function as a strategic pause—one that sustains the health of the farm for the next generation as much as it serves the prairie chicken or the duck.
Join this channel and support our efforts:

Categories: Lifestyle

Starring: Charlie and Shuana Rankin