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EQIP Program in Yoakum County

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) offers cost share assistance to agricultural producers to implement on-farm conservation practices.  The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) determines eligible producers for the EQIP program and determines eligible land.  Eligible producers may apply for cost share assistance on conservation practices that will address the identified resource concern identified by the Local Work Group (LWG).

Yoakum County Office Information

Interested agricultural producers may apply in person at the Yoakum County USDA Service Center. Applicants may also request EQIP assistance by telephone, Fax, e-mail, or letter.

Donald Haley, District Conservationist

State Resource Concerns Priority Areas that include part of Yoakum County:

Specific State Concern State Resource Concern
AFO-CAFO -Poultry Water Quality/Air Quality
AFO-CAFO -Swine Water Quality/Air Quality
AFO-CAFO-Beef Water Quality/Air Quality
AFO-CAFO -Dairy Water Quality/Air Quality
Salt Cedar Invasive Species
Panhandle Lesser Prairie chicken/Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Wildlife
Limited Resource Farmer or Rancher All

Objective:


The objective of the Yoakum County EQIP program is to promote the use of conservation practices for improving the natural resources throughout the county, such as soil erosion, grazing health, and water quantity and quality.

Base and Ogallala Fund Allocation

The primary objective of the Yoakum County 2006 EQIP program is to promote the wise use and protection of county resources for production and sustainability through installation of water saving conservation practices, reducing soil erosion and improvement of grazing land resources.

County EQIP Resource Concern:

Major resource concerns of the 2006 EQIP program are increasing watering efficiency, reducing soil erosion and decreasing encroaching brush canopy under the Priority Resource Concern of Plant Health for Base Fund Allocations and Water Quantity for Ogallala Fund Allocations.

Eligible Practices and Cost Share Rates:

Base Allocation

Note - On Priority rankings 2 and 3, which have more than one practice listed, one practice is not outranked by the other. Livestock Fencing will not be ranked ahead of Livestock Watering Facility in priority on ranking worksheets.
Eligible Practices Listed 1-9 in Order of Priority.

Cost Share Rates as recommended by the Local Work Group

Limited Resource Farmers and Ranchers - 90 percent
Beginning Farmers and Ranchers - 75 percent
All Others - 50 percent

  1. Chemigation valve and/or Flowmeter 449
  2. Range Seeding 550
    Pasture Planting 512
  3. Livestock Watering Facility 614
    Livestock Fencing 382
    Livestock Pipeline 516
    Livestock Well 642
  4. Brush Management 314
  5. Irrigation System, Sprinkler 442- Conversion to LEPA, LPIC, MESA or LESA
  6. Irrigation Pipeline 430DD
  7. Irrigation System, Micro-irrigation 441- conversion from surface, solid set, hand move, big gun,
    sideroll or water drive irrigation systems to a micro-irrigation system - 30, 40, 60, or 80 inch
    spacing.
  8. Terraces 600
  9. All other eligible practices

All Base Allocation funded practices to follow current NRCS Standards and Specifications. Cost-share will be based on the average cost of the practice. The amount of cost-share earned will be the number of units certified after completion multiplied by the average cost multiplied by the cost-share percentage as set by the Local Work Group.

Ogallala Allocation

Eligible Practices listed 1-6 in Order of Priority.

Cost Share Rates as recommended by the Local Work Group

Limited Resource Farmers and Ranchers - 90 percent
Beginning Farmers and Ranchers - 75 percent
All Others - 50 percent

  1. Irrigation System, Sprinkler 442 - Conversion to LPIC, LEPA, MESA and LESA
  2. Irrigation Pipeline 430DD
  3. Irrigation System, Micro-Irrigation 441- conversion of surface, solid set, hand move or big gun, sideroll or water drive to micro-irrigation - 30, 40, 60, 80 inch spacings.
  4. Irrigation System, Sprinkler 442- conversion of surface, solid set, hand move, big gun, sideroll or waterdrive irrigation - to LEPA, LESA, LPIC or MESA Sprinkler Irrigation.
  5. Irrigation System, Micro-Irrigation 441- Conversion of 20 years or older center pivot to micro-irrigation.
  6. All other eligible practices.

All Ogallala funded practices to follow current NRCS Standards and Specifications. Cost-share will be based on the established average cost of the practice. The amount of cost-share earned will be the number of units certified after completion multiplied by the average cost multiplied by the cost-share percentage as set by the Local Work Group.

Ranking Criteria:

Base Allocation

  1. Chemigation Valve and/or Flowmeter 449 - per each

    2. Ranking - No number restriction - all applications to receive a ranking of 100 points.

  2. Range Seeding 550 - per acre
    Pasture Planting 512 - per acre
    Ranking - no acres restriction - all applications to receive a ranking of 90 points.


  3. Livestock Water Facility 614 - per each
    Livestock Fencing 382- per foot
    Livestock Pipeline 516- per foot
    Livestock Well 642- per each
    Ranking - no number or footage restriction - all applications to receive a ranking of 80 points.


  4. Brush Management 314 - per acre
    Ranking - no acres restriction - no ranking brush canopy percentage criteria established by LWG - all conservation practices under NRCS technical guide for 314 Brush Management are eligible. All applications to receive a ranking of 70 points.

  5. Irrigation System, Sprinkler 442 -Conversion of old pivot sprinkler system to LEPA, LESA, LPIC or MESA sprinkler system - per foot. Ranking - No number of conversions restriction.  All applications to receive a ranking of 60-LEPA, 55-LESA, 50-LPIC and 45- MESA points respectively.

  6. Irrigation Pipeline 430DD- per foot - replacing old and faulty irrigation pipeline only.
    Ranking - no footage restriction - All applications to receive a ranking of 40 points.

  7. Conversion of old irrigation sprinkler 441, conversion of surface, solid set, hand moved, big gun, sideroll or water drive irrigation systems with micro-irrigation - 30, 40, 60 or 80 inch spacings.
    Ranking - no minimum or maximum acres restriction. All applications to receive 30 points.

  8. Terrace 600 - per foot or cubic yard, dependant upon type of terrace or terrace system
    installed.  Ranking - no footage or cubic yard restriction - all applications to receive a ranking of 10 points.
  9. All other eligible practices. All applications to receive a ranking of 5 points.

Ogallala Fund Allocation

  1. Conversion of old sprinkler system to LEPA, LESA, LPIC, MESA 442- per foot.

    Ranking - no number of conversions restriction.  All applications will receive 100-LEPA, 90-LESA, 80-LPIC and 70- MESA points respectively.

  2. Replacing old inefficient pipeline with new PVC pipeline 430DD - per foot

    Ranking - No footage or number restriction. May not be used to tie in new irrigation well.  All applications to receive 60 points.

  3. Conversion of side roll, water drive or hand moved pipe to Micro-Irrigation 441 -30, 40, 60 or 80 inch spacings- per acre.

    Ranking - no acres restriction. All applications to receive 50 points.

  4. Conversion of sideroll, water drive or hand moved pipe to new LEPA, LESA, LPIC or MESA system 442- per foot.

    Ranking - All applications to receive 40-LEPA, 35-LESA, 30-LPIC and 25- MESA points respectively.

  5. Conversion of old sprinkler pivot package, >20 years, to Micro-Irrigation 441 -30, 40, 60 or 80 inch spacings-per acre.

    Ranking - No acres restriction.  All applications will receive 20 points.

  6. All other eligible practices. All applications to receive a ranking of 5 points.

Any application for a practice that does not meet program intent or meet accepted irrigation applications or methods shall not be eligible.

Practices not on the Base Allocation or Ogallala Allocation lists or eligible EQIP practice list for Yoakum County are not eligible for cost-share. Questions as to eligibility of any application for a cost-share practice covered by these definitions shall be determined by the Designated Conservationist for the Seminole Resource Team.

High Priority

High Priority will be given to those applications that have conservation plans or systems in place for their entire operating units. On cropland, the plans/systems must meet NRCS Resource Quality Criteria (RMS) for Soil Erosion. On all other land, the plan/system must meet NRCS Resource Management System (RMS) criteria for all planning concerns.

Medium Priority

Medium Priority will be given to those applications that do not meet High Priority qualifications, but have a progressive conservation plan in place or are willing to develop a conservation plan.

Low Priority

Low Priority will be given to application not meeting the High or Medium Priority qualifications.

In the event of a tie, a 12-digit computer generated number will serve to break a tie.