Iron County Record | 1964-01-30 | Page 3 | Soil Bank Contracts Expiring, Land Use Creates Problems

Soil Bank Contracts Expiring, Land Use Creates Problems Land owners who have had acres in the Soil Bank need to begin considering how they will use that land when their Conservation Conser-vation Reserve contracts expire, says County Agent Willace Sjo-blom. Sjo-blom. He noted that six contracts expired ex-pired at the end of 1963 on 1,369 acres In Iron County, more than 40.000 in the state and more than 6.7 million acres in the nation. Karl G. Parker, Utah State University Uni-versity extension range specialist, savs that some of these expired soil bank lands could help supplement sup-plement the range needs of exist!",,' ex-ist!",,' livestock operations bv providing spring and possibly fall grazing. He cited a survey indicating the average Soil Bank unit in the counties having the most land in Conservation Reserve Res-erve to about 300 acres. In Iron 'County it averages 228 acres. He said, "That would be a j practical sie unit for grazing purposes cr rr.cst ,; rstcrk cp erations in Utah. County agents indicated they believe it might also be possible to combine some of the Soil Bank lands into cooperative coop-erative grazing units with ranee I improvements, such as water de- I velopment, fencing and grazing management practice, carried out j by participating ranchers. Mr. Sjohlom observes that owners own-ers must decide how to use their land after studying their own individual in-dividual situations. According to the possible uses for which the land may he suited, they may select one of these choices: (1 leave it in a soil conserving use such as grazing, (2) crop it, (3) sell it, 4 rent it, or (5) participate parti-cipate in a government diversion program.