(AKA… the new Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry (CSAF) Mitigation Activities List)
By Buz Kloot
For those of you swimming in the alphabet soup of acronyms, you are not alone (full disclosure, I am a state employee, so I should do better…), I just found out what CSAF stands for… it’s “Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry”.
OK, the word “climate” can be controversial, and I get that, but the good news is that I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t think more soil organic matter and improved soil structure are a bad thing, at least I haven’t heard of any arguments on these subjects around the Thanksgiving dinner table! My point is that farmers and ranchers have a huge opportunity to make big changes to their businesses with the 2024 EQIP and CSP programs (remember, the sign-up deadline is November 3).
We have a link below to what is called the “Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry (CSAF) Mitigation Activities List”, sounds kinda boring, but there are a few CSP enhancement activities added to the activities list that caught my eye:
· Cover crop to improve moisture use efficiency and reduce salts
· Strategically planned, patch burning for grazing distribution and wildlife habitat
· Improved grazing management through monitoring activities
· Contingency Planning for Resiliency (Grazing and Pasture)
· Grazing-maintained fuel break to reduce the risk of fire (Under Fuel Break)
These additions caught my eye because we have so much expertise in South Dakota that can make these activities really work on the ground and if the producer is being rewarded for these activities, so much the better.
So take a dive into the alphabet soup and check out the CSAF Mitigation List for 2024. If you are a producer, I’m pretty sure there are going to be a few things that work for you!
Here’s the link to the list
____________________________________________________________________
Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages:
1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more.
2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture.
3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media:
4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com