harvesting Dryland Pasture Seed Mix with a combine

The Conservation Reserve Program

“farmers enrolled in the program agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality… The long-term goal of the program is to re-establish valuable land cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and reduce loss of wildlife habitat.”

Farm Service Agency (FSA) Website

“CRP is a land conservation program administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). In exchange for a yearly rental payment, farmers enrolled in the program agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality. Contracts for land enrolled in CRP are from 10 to15 years in length. The long-term goal of the program is to re-establish valuable land cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and reduce loss of wildlife habitat.

Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, CRP is one of the largest private-lands conservation program in the United States. Thanks to voluntary participation by farmers and landowners, CRP has improved water quality, reduced soil erosion, and increased habitat for endangered and threatened species.” FSA Website

Seed Mixes for CRP

Great Basin Seed has been providing seed mixes to farmers and ranchers enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) program from the beginnings of the bill. We have provided millions of pounds of seed to thousands of farmers across the United States. Each mix is carefully prescribed and blended to meet the needs of the location being seeded.

Every CRP seed mix is different:

The NRCS and FSA administer the Conservation Reserve Program differently in every state. Each state has unique ecosystems and needs and each state prescribes it’s own mixes. Seeds mixes may vary from county to county based on the recommendations of the local FSA agent. When landowners enroll in the program they work with the FSA or NRCS agent to develop a seed recipe that is suited to the specific needs of that area, so most CRP seed mixes differ from one another.

Great Basin Seed can help you navigate this process and give you a quote once the FSA/NRCS has prescribed a seed mix. Have the following information ready when you call:

  • Location of your seeding project
  • Annual precipitation of the seeding area
  • Number of acres being seeded
  • Seed mix prescribed by the FSA or NRCS
  • Seeding rates per acre PLS for each of the species in the mix.

This information can be found on the forms provided to you by the CRP agent you are working with.

  • Call us to discuss you CRP mix. 435.283.1411
  • eMail your prescribed CRP seed mix mary@maystackmtn.com
  • Fax your prescribed CRP seed mix at 435.283.6872

We will gladly offer you a competitive quote on your mix. We can also help you arrange delivery and/or pick-up.

For more information on the Conservation Reserve Program, visit their website: here.

Looking for a custom mix? Click here for more information!

We have been working with CRP since 1985

“In 1985 I was 13 years old. I worked seasonally and after school for dad as a laborer. I remember when the Conservation Reserve Program started. We were flooded with new customers and orders for seed mixes. It was overwhelming in some ways, and exciting in others. My siblings and cousins and I would gather at the mixer after school and work well into the night rushing to get CRP seed mixes to the customer. Because CRP mixes are usually fall planted when days are short we usually worked in the dark by floodlight. Dinner was a 5-minute, swallow-a-cheeseburger marathon between mix batches. Some seed orders were urgent enough that we floor-stacked seed in 50 pound bags in one box van. As soon as it left the yard another took it’s place, and by morning the seed was being spread by an airplane hundreds of miles away. I remember those days with fondness. They were the golden years. They were the turning point for dads humble seed company, and they laid the foundation for what Great Basin Seed has become.”

Jason Stevens
Owner, Great Basin Seed

CRP Seeding