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Ranchers.net

The Judge is correct on one thing--this whole Administration/USDA is a joke :( :( :(

Judge orders compromise on CRP grazing



By Janie Gabbett on 7/18/2008

MeatingPlace



A federal judge in Seattle Thursday ordered USDA and the National Wildlife Federation to find a compromise by Tuesday on their fight over a plan to allow haying and grazing on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land across the country, according to media reports.



In the meantime, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour is keeping a temporary restraining order he issued last week after the NWF filed suit over how well USDA assessed the environmental impact before it decided to open the land for ranchers to use. (See Hearing set for July 17 on halted haying and grazing on CRP land on Meatingplace.com, July 11, 2008.)



USDA opened the acres in an attempt to help ranchers cope with high feed prices and possible grain shortages.



Coughenour gave both sides until noon Tuesday to work out elements of a compromise. Those elements may include: limiting the acres eligible for haying and grazing to no more than 2.5 million nationally, forbidding further use of the program without first conducting an environmental review, and prohibiting use of the program on lands that have already been recently hayed or grazed, according to the Seattle Times.



In return, Coughenour promised to issue an order by the end of next week implementing a modified version of the Critical Feed Use program nationwide.



Coughenour seemed to agree at least in part with the NFW suit, calling USDA's environmental review before it decided to open the CRP acreage a "joke", according to the Associated Press.



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