By For more than 30 years, I helped South Dakota producers implement conservation practices as a district conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Now, as a full-time rancher running a 200-head cow-calf operation alongside corn and soybean crops with my son, I see both sides of conservation’s crucial role and what happens when loss of staff and delayed payments threaten them.
Grady Heitmann, Guest Columnist
We have been hearing about U.S. Department of Agriculture staff cuts and office closures that could impact the help we get from NRCS, and when the government shutdown began a few weeks ago, we got a preview of what the impact could be as producers in my area who had completed large conservation water projects for livestock were told their cost-share reimbursements would arrive in the new fiscal year.
Those checks never came.
Instead, the local NRCS office had to lock its doors, and staff who provide technical assistance were furloughed, leaving producers in limbo.
This isn’t a minor inconvenience. Conservation programs are strategic investments in the nation’s food supply: more productive land, cleaner water and resilient operations that weather droughts and market downturns.
On my own operation, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, commonly called EQIP, and Conservation Stewardship Program contracts have helped me install a deep well with miles of pipeline, water tanks and cross fencing.
Our planned grazing system increased our stocking rate by 15% to 20% on the same acreage, more beef production from the same land base.
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But that infrastructure cost around $200,000 five years ago. Since that time, installation costs have increased, and most producers cannot afford such investments alone, especially with input costs at historic highs. Conservation programs bridge that gap, enabling long-term improvements that benefit everyone for decades.
Mid-October is the peak harvest season, when many producers must plan for spring. Proposed budget cuts will halt work at local NRCS agencies, and producers will lose access to technical assistance and funding, disrupting the intricate timing that modern agriculture demands and threatening operations already on thin margins.
Those delayed reimbursements represent real financial strain for families who fronted the money based on government commitments. When I spend conservation dollars, I’m hiring local contractors and supporting rural jobs. That money circulates through small-town economies again and again. When it stops, the ripple effects extend far beyond individual farms.
Washington must honor its commitments to producers who completed conservation projects in good faith. It must reopen local offices and restore funding without bureaucratic delays.
Grady Heitmann is a former Natural Resources Conservation Service district conservationist and operates a farming and ranching operation in Faulk County with his son, Derek.