Playa Lakes Joint Venture's Policy Director Barth Crouch updates status of the 2013 Farm Bill. He says most ections of the legislation pertaining to conservation were funded through fiscal year 2013 in the so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations at the end of 2012.
National Resources Conservation Service district conservationist Greg Henderson talks about cost-share funds available under the Lesser Prairie Chicken Initiative being important for grassland coming out of expiring CRP contracts and going back to work as grazing land. Those funds have helped producers construct perimeter fences and install livestock watering systems. Without that assistance, Henderson thinks lots of expiring CRP land might have been plowed and returned to crop production. This episode of Playa Country was produced by the PLJV in March 2013. It is the first in four-part series on the USDA NRCS Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative. The story originally aired on HPPR June 4, 2013.