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Requirements for Pasture Renovation and Prescribed Grazing

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

Producer requirements for obtaining cost share for pasture renovation or  incentive payments for Prescribed Grazing:

  1. Soil test required (University of Tennessee, A & L or Waters Lab). Areas of contrasting soils, problem spots or portions of fields where yields are significantly different should be sampled separately, provided the area can be fertilized separately. Examples:  bottomland and upland. See University of Tennessee publication PB 1061 (UT PB1061) for soil sampling information.
  2. Develop a conservation plan with a grazing component for the land with NRCS assistance. (May need over-seed with legumes and/or grasses as needed in order to maintain the desired stand.) 
  3. Apply lime as required by soil test (University of Tennessee soil test recommendation).  Lime must be applied the first year when required.  When lime is required applications may be split, with some application of lime occurring over a one, two or three year period.   All lime required must be completed by the end of the third year.
  4. Apply fertilizer annually by soil test maintenance recommendations to meet required pasture and hay production levels.  If required pasture and hay production levels are currently met or exceeded, no additional fertilizer is needed.  Target Medium fertility level. 
  5. Balance forage.  Complete the Graze Program in order to balance livestock forage needs with the forage produced and purchased.  Adjust livestock numbers, fertilizer rates, or purchased feed in order to meet livestock forage needs. 
  6. Implement a rotational grazing plan which has a minimum of five (5) paddocks or fields.   You attempt to develop a grazing system which plans for no more 14 days of continuous grazing on the same paddock or field.
  7. Control weeds in the pastureland by clipping, spraying, and/or wiping as needed.  Complete a pest management plan as a part of the conservation plan.
  8. Do not graze forages lower than the minimum grazing height.  Graze no more than 20 percent of the acreage to less than the minimum grazing height.  (Not less than 3 inches for cool season grasses or recommended grazing heights for other seed mixtures.  A pasture stick and training will be provided by NRCS field personnel.
  9. Recordkeeping is needed in all agricultural operations; livestock production is no exception.  Use of the Grazing Land & Livestock Resource Inventory or other appropriate guidebook system will be required as an aid in recordkeeping and presented annually before receiving incentive payments.   The guidebooks are available through the local SCD Office.     
  10. Payments for prescribed grazing will not be made until the end of the rotational grazing season. In Tennessee the grazing season extends from April-October, thus cost-share payments should not be made until the end of the grazing system (i.e. the middle of September to the end of October).  When to make payments is also influenced by the Fiscal Year in ProTracts for which the payment is set up.  Records of rotational grazing must be submitted with receipts and request for payment (see item 10). Good grazers will be able to extend the grazing season by one or more additional months so that hay may only need to be fed for 60 days or less.

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