2007 Environmental Quality Incentive Program

Local Work Group Summary for Portales

Introduction:

The Portales Field Office Local Work Group area covers two Soil and Water Conservation Districts; Border and Roosevelt, and includes land in both Chaves and Roosevelt Counties.  The area is on the High Plains of east central New Mexico and ranges from the Texas State line on the east to the Pecos River on the west.  The area includes dry cropland, irrigated cropland, and rangeland.  In recent years, many dairies have been established in the area.  Most of the irrigated cropland is served by the Ogallala (High Plains) Aquifer and is experiencing yearly decreases in pumped water yield.  The area receives an average of 13 to 16 inches of annual precipitation and has a 180-day frost-free growing season.  All of the cropland in the area is considered Highly Erodible Land.

Local Work Group: 

The area represented by the Local Work Group comprises approximately 2.17 million acres with about 6% being irrigated cropland, 10% dry cropland, and 84% rangeland.  There are 56 animal feeding operations (AFOs) included in the area.  The Local Work Group invited 39 people to their meeting and 28 attended.  In addition to supervisors from both SWCDs, the group included New Mexico Game and Fish, State Land Office, BLM and NRCS. 

Priority Resource Concerns: 

Resource concerns were identified by the LWG for the following land uses: Irrigated Cropland, Dry Cropland, Rangeland, Wildlife Habitat, and Livestock Manure Management.  Irrigated Cropland concerns include water quality, irrigation efficiency and reduction of aquifer usage.  Dry Cropland concerns include soil erosion from wind and water as well as flooding.  Rangeland concerns include range plant health and composition, water quantity, brush infestation, livestock water availability, grazing management, soil erosion, and Lesser Prairie Chicken habitat.  Wildlife Habitat concerns primarily grazing deferment of playa lakes on rangeland.  Livestock Manure Management concerns include sediment basins, lagoon seepage, nutrient management, and manure handling.  Windbreaks will be included in each land use.

The Ground and Surface Water program will be managed independently of normal EQIP and the proposal is attached as a separate document.  Incentive payment amounts and cost-share rates are included on the Roosevelt County Component Cost List.  Area wide criteria has been established in the new ranking tool.

Funding Considerations:

The funds provided for EQIP will be allocated in proportion to how they are received with the exception of 5% of the total being dedicated to Windbreaks and 2.5% dedicated to Wildlife.  Funding requests will be ranked according to the ranking criteria developed for each land use and assigned to the EQIP funds that were received for that land use.  Should there be insufficient funding requests in any category; the remaining funds will be allocated in direct proportion to the requests received in the other categories.  It is projected that the total funding requests will exceed the available funds.

 The EQIP funds will be allocated as follows:

•  Irrigated Cropland:        32.2%
•  Rangeland:                    27.5%
•  Dry Cropland:                20.1%
•  Manure Management:      12.7%
•  Windbreaks:                     5.0%
•  Wildlife:                            2.5%

These percentages will change if the EQIP funds received by the state are allocated differently than 2004; Dry Cropland – 5% Irrigated Cropland – 30%, Rangeland – 50%, AFO – 10%.

Cost Docket: 

The east area wide cost docket will be used.  The docket will be available on the New Mexico NRCS website (www.nm.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/fotgintro.html) Please refer to the links for the cost docket and eligible practices to view the final approved practices, cost share rates and practice components.

Eligible Practices:

Only conservation practices with a coast share rate or incentive payment shown for the Portales F.O. in the Eats Area cost docket will be eligible for inclusion in contracts.

Please refer to the links for the cost docket and eligible practices to view the final approved practices, cost share rates and practice component costs.

Cost Share Rates, Incentive Payments and Caps: 

The LWG recommended higher cost share rates for the following practices. All other practices were recommended to be cost shared at 50%:

• Brush Management (314) – 65%
• Diversion (362) – 65%
• Irrigation System, Sprinkler (442) – 65%
• Irrigation Water Conveyance (430) – 65%
• Terraces – (600) – 65%
• Windbreak/Shelterbelt establishment – 65%

Prescribed Grazing and Residue Management, No-Till, are the only practices that will be eligible for incentive payments and cost-shared at 100% for a maximum of three years.  Prescribed Grazing will be eligible only when it is used in conjunction with management to improve Lesser Prairie Chicken and Wildlife Habitat.  For Prairie Chicken Incentive, interested producers will be required to defer a pasture (640-acre minimum) from domestic livestock grazing for ten months (August 1st through May 30th) to participate.  In addition, a confirmed active lek site must be within two miles of the enrolled acreage.  Prescribed Grazing will also be eligible for the Wildlife Habitat concern to provide livestock deferment around playa lakes.  A maximum of 320 acres, per producer, will be eligible for the Wildlife concern.   The incentive payment for Residue Management, No-Till, will be available only to producers who have not tried the practice in the past.

In Summary-

An incentive payment of $7.50/acre has been established for Prescribed Grazing (528a), in association with protecting/enhancing Lesser Prairie Chicken habitat.

An incentive payment of $40.00 /acre has been established for Residue Management, No-Till (329A).  This incentive is only available to those selected participants who have not utilized this practice in the past.  The incentive will be paid on a maximum of 320 acres.

A $50,000 financial assistance cap has been established for incentive payments.

Please refer to the links for the cost docket and eligible practices to view the final approved practices, cost share rates and practice component costs.

Lost Draw Watershed Initiative

A joint effort between the Lovington and Portales NRCS Field Offices has been initiated to address the problem of habitat degradation of the Lesser Prairie Chicken.  Overgrazing and encroaching brush species have been determined to be a major cause of this habitat decline.  The area of concern lies within the Lost Draw Watershed (HUA code 1208001) in the northern end of Lea County and the southern end of Roosevelt County.  Practices that will be available to address the problem include brush management, prescribed grazing, livestock pipeline, troughs and tanks, pumping plants, fencing and wildlife watering facilities.  Each LWG agreed to allocate $50,000 of their overall EQIP fund allocation to devote to this watershed initiative.  The state NRCS office will contribute an additional $50,000 to each F.O. EQIP allocation

Cost Share Rates for Limited Resource Producers and Beginning Farmers/Ranchers

Please refer back to the main EQIP page for information.

Ranking Criteria:

The national ranking tool will be used to rank all applications.  The system allows for 40% of the total points to address local issues.

Please refer to the ranking criteria links to view the final approved criteria.

Timelines, Evaluation Periods: 

All applications and any supporting documentation must be submitted by November 3, 2006.  Due to the requirement of Lesser Prairie Chicken lek sites for ranking rangeland requests, their completion may be delayed.  Ranking of the rangeland requests will be completed as soon as possible following the bird’s mating season, which normally ends in late April.

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